Pasargadae and the Tomb of Cyrus the Great in Iran

Pasargadae was the first capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, built by Cyrus the Great from about 546 BC on a high plain in Fars Province, south-western Iran. It combined palaces, a monumental gatehouse and a royal garden watered by stone channels. Its best-known monument, the stepped stone Tomb of Cyrus, still stands on the open plain and is one of the most recognisable landmarks of ancient Iran.

Background: a capital for a new empire

Cyrus came from Persis (Fars), the homeland of the Persians. Around 550 BC he overthrew the Median king Astyages, and within a few years he had conquered Lydia and the Greek cities of western Anatolia. These events are covered in Cyrus the Great Founds the Persian Empire.

The Greek geographer Strabo says Cyrus founded Pasargadae on the spot where he won his final victory over Astyages. Whatever the truth of this, the site lay in the Persian heartland, on the Dasht-e Morghab plain watered by the Pulvar river, at an altitude of about 1,900 metres.

The name probably comes from the Persian tribe of the Pasargadae, to which the Achaemenid royal family belonged. Building seems to have begun around 546 BC, after the conquest of Lydia. Stone masonry at the site shows techniques, such as the use of the toothed chisel and iron clamps, that were common in Lydia and Ionia, suggesting that craftsmen from western Anatolia worked there.

Layout of the city

Pasargadae was not a dense city with streets of houses. It was a royal landscape of separate buildings set in parkland, spread over roughly two kilometres of the plain.

Gate R and the winged figure

A large gatehouse, known to archaeologists as Gate R, stood at the entrance to the palace area. One of its doorjambs still carries a relief of a figure with four wings and an elaborate Egyptian-style crown. The figure has often been identified as a protective spirit or as Cyrus himself, but its meaning is debated. A short trilingual inscription naming “Cyrus the king, an Achaemenid” was recorded above it by early travellers but has since been lost. Some scholars think inscriptions of this kind were added later, under Darius I.

Palaces S and P

Palace S was an audience hall with a central columned room and porticoes on all four sides. Palace P, often called the residential palace, had a large hall with 30 columns and reliefs on its doorways. The columns were made of dark and light stone, giving a striking two-colour effect.

The royal garden

Between the two palaces lay a garden crossed by finely cut limestone water channels with small basins at intervals. David Stronach, who excavated the site in 1961-1963, argued that the garden had a four-part layout, an early form of the chahar bagh (four gardens) that later became typical of Persian gardens. Later studies have questioned parts of his reconstruction, but the garden remains one of the earliest known formal palace gardens in Iran.

Tall-e Takht and the tower

On a hill to the north stands Tall-e Takht, a massive stone platform. It was probably intended as a palace terrace but was turned into a fortified citadel and used for centuries after the Achaemenids. Near the palaces stands the ruin of a square stone tower called Zendan-e Soleyman (“prison of Solomon”). Its purpose, whether a tomb, a temple or a store for royal objects, is unknown. A similar tower stands at Naqsh-e Rostam near Persepolis.

The Tomb of Cyrus

The tomb stands about a kilometre south-west of the palaces. It is built of large white limestone blocks and has two parts: a base of six receding steps and, on top, a small house-like chamber with a gabled roof. The whole monument is about 11 metres high. The chamber measures roughly 3.2 by 2.1 metres inside and is entered through a low, narrow doorway.

The design is unusual in Iran. Scholars have compared the stepped base to Mesopotamian ziggurats and the gabled chamber to tombs and temples of Anatolia, reflecting the mixture of traditions in Cyrus’s new empire. Cyrus died in 530 BC, so the tomb was probably finished by then or soon after; the circumstances of his death are told in Death of Cyrus the Great.

Arrian, drawing on Aristobulus, an officer of Alexander the Great, describes the chamber as it was in antiquity. It contained a golden coffin, a couch with golden feet, fine textiles, weapons and jewellery. The tomb stood in a park, and a group of Magi (Persian priests) lived nearby to guard it. Arrian says they received a sheep each day and a horse each month for sacrifice.

Alexander’s visit

After the death of Darius III in 330 BC, Persia came under Macedonian rule. When Alexander the Great returned from India in 324 BC, he found the Tomb of Cyrus broken into and robbed. Arrian reports that only the coffin and couch remained, and that the robbers had tried to remove the body.

Alexander ordered Aristobulus to restore the tomb, replace what could be replaced and wall up the doorway. He had the Magi guarding the tomb questioned under torture, but no culprit was found. Plutarch and Strabo also report an inscription on or in the tomb addressing the passer-by in Cyrus’s name, but its wording differs between the sources and no such text survives on the monument.

Later history

After the Achaemenids, Pasargadae was overshadowed by Persepolis, which Darius I had begun around 518 BC. Achaemenid kings were nevertheless said to be crowned in a ceremony at Pasargadae, according to Plutarch.

In the Islamic period the tomb was known as Mashhad-e Madar-e Soleyman, the shrine of the mother of Solomon. In the 13th century a small mosque was built around it, using columns taken from the palaces, and a prayer niche was carved into the chamber. These additions were largely removed in the 20th century.

European travellers identified the tomb with Cyrus in the 19th century. Ernst Herzfeld worked at the site in 1928, and Ali Sami directed Iranian excavations in the 1950s. Stronach’s British Institute of Persian Studies excavations of 1961-1963 produced the standard modern study. In October 1971 the tomb was the setting for the opening of the celebrations of 2,500 years of the Persian monarchy organised by Mohammad Reza Shah.

Pasargadae today

Pasargadae was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. The completion of the Sivand Dam on the Pulvar river in 2007 raised concern about humidity and damage to monuments in the area, though the effects remain debated. The tomb itself has undergone repeated conservation work to protect its weathered limestone blocks.

Timeline

• c. 550 BC: Cyrus overthrows Astyages, king of the Medes.
• c. 546 BC: Building begins at Pasargadae, after the conquest of Lydia.
• 530 BC: Cyrus dies on campaign; he is buried in the tomb at Pasargadae.
• c. 518 BC: Darius I begins Persepolis, which becomes the main ceremonial centre.
• 324 BC: Alexander the Great finds the tomb robbed and orders its restoration.
• 13th century AD: A mosque is built around the tomb, then known as the shrine of the mother of Solomon.
• 1961-1963: Excavations by David Stronach for the British Institute of Persian Studies.
• 2004: Pasargadae becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Why it matters

Pasargadae is the earliest Achaemenid royal capital and shows how Cyrus combined the art and building methods of the peoples he conquered into a new imperial style. Its garden is an early ancestor of the Persian garden tradition, and its tomb is the only surviving monument directly linked to the founder of the Persian Empire. For many Iranians today, it is a powerful symbol of national history.