The Pakistani Spectator

There are currently 9 world heritage sites registered to UNESCO from Iran, Persepolis of Shiraz the first of them all.

Persepolis is the main symbol of Persian culture and civilization to the Iranians around the globe and reckoned as a source of honor for the youth generation of modern day Iran.

The exclusive architectural traits of this ceremonial palace are caused it to be a unique building in the country, even in the world and an attractive sight for thousands of tourists who travel to the country just for visiting Persepolis.
This palace is known to the modern Iranians as “Takht-e-Jamshid” or the throne of Jamshid. Jamshid is a mythological king of Persian Empire who has been described in great details by Ferdowsi in Shahnameh, the most esteemed epopee of Persian literature.

Many historians attribute this ceremonial capital to the era of Achaemenidan dynasty which goes back to about 2500 years ago.

According to Andre Godard the French archaeologist who excavated Persepolis during the early 1930s, this building has been constructed under Darius the Great but Cyrus the Great has chosen it as the capital of his kingdom.
Persepolis complex is consisted of various parts and halls, the Gate of all nations, Apadana palace and the throne hall are the most predominant of them.
The Persepolis has been attacked by the army forces of Alexander the Macedonian in the year 330 BC which caused irrecoverable damages to the building and destroyed the major parts and halls of it.

The firestorm occurred at the Xerex palace in Persepolis after the Alexander troops left Iran was another disaster for that former glorious and sparkling building and lead to a serious and absolute destruction of more than 40 percent of Persepolis.

Anyhow, the invasion of Persia by Alexander and his awesome military was an unforgettable nightmare for the Sasanid dynasty which made lots of struggles to become a meritorious inheritor of Achaemenidan culture and monarchy but failed ignominiously.
Describing Persepolis is much difficult in words. The remaining ruins are mainly consisted of a number of colossal buildings on the terrace and made of dark-grey marble, 20 standing pillars and 40 escalated minarets.

That painful ruins which have experienced the memoirs of 2500 years of turbulent periods, monarchies and kings are transfiguring a mixed sense of scare, splendor and grief which you can not feel except by observing and touching closely.

Persepolis which was inscribed to UNESCO in 1979 right after the Islamic revolution of Iran hosts more than 500,000 visitors annually most of them from western Europe, US.