NICANOR FELIPE E. PADILLA IV

Persian Architecture

Architectural Achievements

Recognized in buildings of 8th-7th century B.C., before the reign of Cyrus the GreatExcavation was found in western Iran

at: Godin Tepe Baba Jan Nushi Jan

Godin Tepe

Godin Tepe

Original citadel comprised a fortified manor (minor palace) Centered around a larger and a small columned hall

Additional smaller rooms and rows of magazines Protected by a fortification wall with bastions, a tower

and arrow slots

Baba Jan

Presented a formidable façade 8 rectangular towers as part of the defense The space within the wall comprised

A rectangular court within a long room on either side

Tepe Nushi–i-Jan

Tepe Nushi–I-Jan

Near Hamadan (Ecbatana), well-preserved mud-brick buildings of Median have been uncovered in Level I (700-500 B.C.)

Listed structures include: A fire altar

Unusual mural decorations, suggesting long experience in the use of mudbricks

Fort Ramp leading to the staircase; turning round a central

pier and a roof with a mudbrick corbel vault

Persian palaces and tombs’ columnar architecture were derived from older civilizations Gorge molding, from Egypt Sculptured monsters, relief-carved orthostats and

polychrome glazed brickwork, from Mesopotamia Style of masonry, indirectly from Uratu

Site of Pasargadae

Comprises of four structures scattered over a plain, centred round: The citadel

Rusticated masonry is a great feature of the platform of the citadel

The residential palace

The sacred precinct Tomb of Cyrus

Tomb of CyrusA simple box-like

monument of limestone 3.2m x 2.3m (10ft.6in. X 7ft.6in.) Gabled stone and

standing on a six-step platform

Achaemenian in its use of large stones Accurately cut,

smoothly dressed, reinforced by swallowtail clamps of iron and lead

Tomb of Cyrus

Design: Paralleled in the

southern Zagros highlands by the tomb of Gur-i-Dokhtar

Has possible antecedents in the underground tombs with gabled roofs in Luristan and in central Iran at Tepe Sialk, near Kashan

Susa

SusaAncient city of ElamBecame the Persian capital in succession to Babylon

with the building of a citadel and palace complex by Darius I (522-486 BC)

Resources and skills of the empire were utilized in the construction of the palace buildings Cedar from Lebanon Teak from the Zagros mountains and Southern Persia Bricks made by the Babylonian method Craftsmen from Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and Ionia

Famous glazed-brick decorations found in this palace and a later one by Artaxerxes II (404-358 BC) portraying processions of archers, lions, bulls or dragons

Palace of Persepolis•Begun in 518 BC by Darius, mostly executed by Xerxes I (486-465 BC) and finished by Artaxerxes I about 460 BC)•The buildings stood on a platform in a well-laid local stone bound with iron clamps, about 460m x 275m (150ft x 900ft) in extent and rising 15m (50ft)• Stairway to terrace (6.7

mm wide)• Gatehouse of Xerxes

• Mudbrick walls, faced with polychrone bricks, and front and rear portals; guarded by stone bulls

Palace of Persepolis Apadana of Darius I

A grand audience hall, 76.2m (250ft) square and with 36 columns within its (20ft) thick walls

Begun by Darius, completed by his successors

Palace of Darius Might have been finished in

Darius’s lifetime Triphylon

Acted as a reception chamber and guardsroom

Treasury Double-walled administrative and

storehouse building with columned halls of different sizes and a single doorway

Palace of Persepolis Xerxes’s Palace

Near the South West angle, connected with an L-shaped building, identified as the harem

Harem Women’s quarters

Hall of the Hundred Columns Finished by Artaxerxes I A throne hall, 68.6m (225ft)

square with columns 11.3m (37ft) high, supporting a flat cedar roof

All sides, except North, are double-walled, and have two doorways

All were framed in stone surrounds in the 3.4m (11ft) thick brick wall

Palace of PersepolisWonderful architectural

sculptures Monumental stairs were lined with

reliefs where they are arranged in; separated by bands of rosettes Nobles, courtiers, tribute-bearers and

guardsmen advanced in dignified processions, and traditional subjects filled with awkward angles of the stairways and the deep jamps of the doorways

Stepped battlements crowned the parapat walls

Columns of the lesser apartments had wooden shafts Thickly plastered and heavily decorated

Columns of the Halls were stone throughout

Palace of Persepolis

The sculptures have their a character of their own… Molded bases Flutes shafts Curious, complex capitals

that support the roof beams Vertical, Ionic-like volutes Twin bulls and dragons

Tomb of Darius

13km (8 miles) north of Persepolis One of the four rock-hewn

sepulchres of the great Achaemenian kings

The façade 18.3 m (60ft) wide Appears to reproduce the south front

of Darius’s palace at Persepolis 4 collumns of the double-bull type Central doorway with Egyptian-like

cornice Upper compartment in which an

elaborate throne, 2.7m (9ft) high, is supported by two rows of figures, above which the king stands

Tomb of Darius

Fire Temple Stands near the tomb of

Darius A stone square tower

containing a single room, approached by an outside stairway

Sources: Blundell, Jones, Cruickshank, Dan, Frampton, Kenneth,

Richards, Fleur, & Saints, Andrew (Eds.). (1996). Sir Banister Fletcher’s A History of Architecture (2oth ed.). United Kingdoms: Architectural Press.

http://www.beer-studies.com/uploads/media_items/Godin_tepe-site-Nissen-1988.original.jpg

http://www.iranicaonline.org/uploads/files/Palace_Architecture/palacearchitect_fig_1.jpg

http://www.iranicaonline.org/uploads/files/Archeology/v2f3a041_f2_300.jpg

http://www.iranicaonline.org/uploads/files/Pasargadae/pasargadae_fig_6.jpg

http://www.historvius.com/images/original/503-Pasargadae-E.jpg

https://s3.amazonaws.com/classconnection/214/flashcards/6349214/jpg/palace_of_persepolis-14981206C5702CFA89E.jpg

Sources (cont.):

http://www.messagetoeagle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/unescosusa1.jpg

https://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/610/flashcards/899610/jpg/hall_of_hundred_columns1320531480146.jpg

http://www.livius.org/site/assets/files/2724/thumbnail_buspar_gur-e_dokhtar_northwest.jpg

http://0.tqn.com/d/ancienthistory/1/S/O/Q/3/Naqsh-e-Rustam_1.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a9/55/08/a955082aa7998967d87b5aa4658789e1.jpg

http://www.iranicaonline.org/uploads/files/Persepolis/persepolis_fig_4b.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Darius_I_tomb_sections.JPG

http://www.farschto.ir/images/shiraz/naksh3g.jpg