ARAMGAH-E ESTER VA MORDEKHAY MAUSOLEUM

The tomb of the Jewish community of Iran, which consists of 25 000 members, the tomb of Queen Esther, wife of King Achaemenid Xerxes I (485-465 BC), is one of the most interesting sites in Hamdan. The Jews settled in the Persian Empire after the conquest of Babylon by King Achaemenid Cyrus the Great, in 539 BC, the latter made the thousands of Jews who were detained Captive by Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, and encouraged them to return to Judah to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Persia appears in the Bible as a liberating nation.

" Then King Darius gave the order to conduct research at the treasury archives, deposited there in Babylon; and, in the fortress of Ecbatane in the province of Mediates, we found a scroll […] In addition, the objects of the Maison de Dieu, gold and silver, which Nebuchadnezzar had removed from the Temple of Jerusalem. '——— Extract from the Old Testament

In 475 BC, Haman, a high-ranking military, tried to annihilate all the Jews of the Persian Empire to seize their property. Queen Esther's intervention with King Xerxes will be decisive. Assisted by his uncle Mardochée, she obtained royal protection and the right for Jews in exile to settle freely within the Empire.

" Esther was then brought to King Xerxes, at his royal palace, the tenth month, that is, in the month of Téveth, the seventh year of reign. And the king fell in love with Esther more than all women, and she earned her benevolence and her favor more than all girls. He then put the regal diadem on his head and he made it queen in place of Vasti. '——— Extract from the Old Testament

The mausoleum, supposed to host the burials of Esther and his uncle Mardochée, is more likely to host the tomb of a later Jewish queen, Shushan, who would have persuaded her husband Yazdgerd I (a th century king king) to accept the establishment of a Jewish colony in Hamdan.