Shush Castle () is located in the ruins of the ancient city of Susa (''Shush'') in the

Khuzestan Province Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. It was constructed by French archaeologist Jean-Marie Jacques de Morgan in the late 1890s, as a secure base for archaeological exploration and excavation. The Castle is similar to medieval monuments in France. The structure was built by local craftsmen with bricks taken from two other archaeological sites, the

Achaemenid 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 emp ...

Darius/Dariush castle and the

Elamite Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Susian, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was used in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite works disappear from the archeological record ...

Choqazanbil ziggurat. It is built atop a hill ("tappeh") which may contain other relics of past times. It is an example of the pre-scientific era of

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

, when explorers mutilated or destroyed sites in the process of examining them. The former French government property was taken over by the Islamic Republic after the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

in 1979. It is now used as a museum. Its best-known holding is a

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...

tablet inscribed with the Code of Hammurabi, however this is now on display in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Museum in Paris, France. The castle was heavily damaged by Iraqi bombs during the recent Iran–Iraq War, but has since been completely restored by the Iranian government.

Gallery

File:Acropolis Of Susa.JPG File:درب قلعه شوش.jpg File:Chateau de Morgan Castle Shush Iran.jpg File:Shush Castle and the ruins of the ancient city of Susa 02.jpg File:Shush Castle and the ruins of the ancient city of Susa 03.jpg

Gallery

See also