The Parthian style is a style (') of historical
Iranian architecture
Iranian architecture or Persian architecture (Persian: معمارى ایرانی, ''Memāri e Irāni'') is the architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Its history dates back to at least 5,000 BC w ...
defined by
Mohammad Karim Pirnia
Mohammad Karim Pirnia ( fa, محمد کریم پیرنیا, 16 September 1920 – 31 August 1997) was an Iranian architectural historian and architect.
Early life
Born in Yazd
Yazd ( fa, یزد ), formerly also known as Yezd, is the capit ...
.
This
architectural style
An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...
includes designs from the
Seleucid
The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...
(310–140 BCE),
Parthian Parthian may be:
Historical
* A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran
* Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD)
* Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language
* Parthian shot, an archery skill famously employed by ...
(247 BCE – 224 CE), and
Sassanid
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
(224–651 CE) eras, reaching its apex of development in the Sassanid period.
Examples of this style are
Ghal'eh Dokhtar
Qal'eh Dokhtar or Ghale Dokhtar or Dokhtar Castle or Dezh Dokhtar ( fa, دژ دختر, "The Maiden Castle"), is a castle made by Ardashir I, in present-day Fars, Iran, in 209 AD. It is located on a mountain slope near the Firouzabad-Kavar road.
...
, the royal compounds at
Nysa
Nysa may refer to:
Greek Mythology
* Nysa (mythology) or Nyseion, the mountainous region or mount (various traditional locations), where nymphs raised the young god Dionysus
* Nysiads, nymphs of Mount Nysa who cared for and taught the infant ...
,
Anahita Temple,
Khorheh,
Hatra
Hatra ( ar, الحضر; syr, ܚܛܪܐ) was an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia located in present-day eastern Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. The city lies northwest of Baghdad and southwest of Mosul.
Hatra was a strongly fortified ...
, the
Ctesiphon vault of Kasra,
Bishapur
Bishapur (Middle Persian: ''Bay-Šāpūr''; fa, بیشاپور}, ''Bishâpûr'') was an ancient city in Sasanid Persia (Iran) on the ancient road between Persis and Elam. The road linked the Sassanid capitals Estakhr (very close to Persepolis) ...
, and the
Palace of Ardashir in
Ardeshir Khwarreh (Firouzabad).
The ''Parthi'' style of architecture appeared after
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
's conquest of the
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...
in the 3rd century BCE, and historically includes the Sassanid, Parthian, and post Islamic eras, up to the 9th–10th centuries. The remains of the architectural style of this period are not abundant, and although much was borrowed and incorporated from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
designs and methods, architects and builders of this age employed many innovative concepts of their own as well.
[p.94-96]
Gallery
Image:tagkasra.jpg, 1824 depiction of Taq-i Kisra
Tāq Kasrā ( ar, طاق كسرى, translit=ṭāq kisrā), also transcribed as ''Taq-i Kisra'' or ''Taq-e Kesra'' ( fa, طاق کسری, romanized: ''tâğe kasrâ'') or Ayvān-e Kesrā ( fa, ایوان خسرو, translit=Eivâne Xosrow, links=, ...
by British explorer.
File:Anahita temple Iran.jpg, Anahita Temple Archaeological complex in Kangavar
Kangavar ( fa, كنگاور, ''Kangâvar''; also Romanized as Kangāvar) is a city and capital of Kangavar County, Kermanshah Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 48,901, with 12,220 families.
Kangavar is located in the easte ...
.
File:00SarvestanQ80034.jpg, The Sassanid Palace at Sarvestan
File:Takht-e-soleiman-2.jpg, Takht-e Soleymān
Takht-e Soleymān ( fa, تخت سلیمان, lit=Throne of Solomon), is an archaeological site in West Azerbaijan, Iran dating back to Sasanian Empire. It lies midway between Urmia and Hamadan, very near the present-day town of Takab, and west ...
File:معبد كاريوس ...اوروك .... مدينة الوركاء ... المثنى.jpg, Temple of Gareus, Uruk
Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
See also
*
Hellenistic architecture
Hellenistic art is the art of the Hellenistic period generally taken to begin with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and end with the conquest of the Greek world by the Romans, a process well underway by 146 BCE, when the Greek mainlan ...
*
Ancient Greek architecture
Ancient Greek architecture came from the Greek-speaking people (''Hellenic'' people) whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Anatolia and Italy for a period from about 900 BC unti ...
References
Further reading
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parthian Style (Iranian Architecture)
Architecture in Iran
Hellenistic architecture
Parthian architecture
Sasanian architecture