From Zoroaster to Islam

From Zoroaster to Islam

Iran
Ancient Persepolis, center of the Zooastrian Persian empire.

Persepolis
The ruins of the legendary Persepolis, capital of the Achemenides Persian empire, lay in the midst of the Marv Dasht desert of central Iran, 50km north to the city of Shiraz and about a 1000 from Techran. Darius I around 510 BC moved the capital from Pasargades to Persepolis and declared it as the center of his political and religious authority. But the city enjoyed wealth, security and splendor only for two centuries, until 330 BC, when its majestic audience halls and residential palaces perished in flames when Alexander the Great conquered the vast empire and looted the glorious city. According to Plutarch 20000 mules and 5000 camels carried away its treasures to Babylon and Macedonia in Greece. The ruins were not excavated until the Oriental Institute of Chicago University sponsored an expedition under the supervision of Prof. Ernst Herzfeld from 1934 t01940.
The site with the ruins is a miracle to the eyes provided you take all necessary measures to avoid sunstroke... As you approach the site and you take a first glimpse of the imposing external walls of the city (the photo) you wonder how they can stand there so intact after nearly 2500 years! But what waits for you inside the walls is much more impressing urging you also to think for how longer they are destined to lay there maybe defying time but dreading the axe of the Jihads!...