REMAINS OF PASARGADES (MACHHAD-E MORQAB)

Winner in 550 B.C. opposite the army of Astyage, King of the Medes, Cyrus II will certainly write one of the most glorious pages of Persia. As a result of his victory, he replaces the old capital Mede, a long-standing Anshan, a new capital: .

Following the example of the Précurseurs precursors of the Medes, the Achéménides form an immense territory extending across the current Iran and part of Central Asia. Pasargadae will remain the capital of the Achaemenid Empire until the death of Cambyse II (529-522 BC), which submitted Egypt. The advent of Darius I (522-486 BC) was superseded by Persepolis.

The tomb of Cyrus the Great. Slowly after the death of Cyrus, in 530 BC, the large sarcophagus dominates the top of its base on six steps. This ancient mausoleum looks like a house covered with stone slabs. From the early centuries of the first millennium BC, tombs in Persia, usually housed in a grave like the mysterious temple of fire of the royal necropolis of Naqsh-e Rostam, were frequently inspired by living houses. According to legend, Alexander the Great, after his victory in Pasargadae in 330 BC, would have been wind of the desecration by a Macedonian soldier of the funeral monument of the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Mad of rage, he ordered the execution of the culprit, and then made the following epitaph, in Greek, on the stone:

" O man, whoever you are and wherever you come, I am Cyrus, who gave the empire to the Persians. So don't envy me that little land that covers my body! '»»»»

200 m from the tomb: the remains of the inauguration palace, the residential palace and the entrance palace. Dispersed in vast royal gardens, skilfully organized and irrigated, their structure differs from the raw brick materials used in Suse. The achaemenid architecture will make use of appareillées stones. Nevertheless, the use of shale for Pasargadae largely explains the slightest resistance of stone compared to Persepolis. Breaking with the contemporary Assyrian traditions, in Pasargadae as later in Persepolis, the palaces were made up of hypostyles rooms, the ceiling of which was supported by several rows of inner columns. In this way, huge halls saw the day by means of this new technique that the Achéménides used in full to express their superiority to the other nations of the Empire. The palatiale architecture of the columns, probably born on the ground of Iran, is historically héritière of the Medes. Moreover, it imprégne with foreign influences, notably neo-colonialists, evoking the great Greek temples of Asia Minor, then under Persian domination. The Greek style is explained by the presence of ', the best stone cutters of the Achaemenid Empire. The sculpted decor expressed the vocation of the new state to take into account the cultural heritage of the peoples, more integrated than enslaved in this immense space.

The building of the Royal Cyrus Residence consisted of a central hypostyle hall in five rows of six columns. On the ground, the square bases of the pillars are still visible. See also the fragments fragments on the few jambs of doors remaining. Also note the tracks of the columns of the courtroom, the large central room at the time. These two palaces were less residences than apparat. The third building probably corresponds to entry to the palatine complex. Its portal, now under shelter, contains a bas-relief with a winged genius, top of 3 m. It is the oldest achaemenid terrain still intact.

Also dwell on the ruins of a tower known as Solomon prison; a sort of platform in stone slabs, the throne of the Mother of Solomon; and the remains of two altars or towers of the stone fire.