The Tachara, or the Tachar Château, also referred to as the Palace of Darius the Great, was the exclusive building of

Darius I Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West A ...

at Persepolis,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. It is located 70 km northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in

Fars province Fars Province or Pars Province, also known as Persis or Farsistan (فارسستان), is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Shiraz. Pars province has an area of 122,400 km2 and is located in Iran's southwest, i ...

History and construction

The construction dates back to the time of the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

(550 BC–330 BC). The building has been attributed to

, but only a small portion of it was finished under his rule. It was completed after the death of Darius I in 486, by his son and successor, Xerxes I, who called it a ''taçara'' in

Old Persian Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as (I ...

, translated to "winter palace". In the 4th century BC, following his invasion of Achaemenid Persia in 330 BC,

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

allowed his troops to loot Persepolis. This palace was one of the few structures that escaped destruction in the burning of the complex by Alexander the Great's army.

Structure

The Tachara stands back to back to the

Apadana Apadana (, or ) is a large hypostyle hall in Persepolis, Iran. It belongs to the oldest building phase of the city of Persepolis, in the first half of the 5th century BC, as part of the original design by Darius I, Darius the Great. Its cons ...

, and is oriented southward. Measuring , it is the smallest of the ''palace buildings'' on the Terrace at Persepolis. As the oldest of the palace structures on the Terrace, it was constructed of the finest quality gray stone. Persepolis 24

Its main room is a mere with three rows of four columns. A complete window measuring was carved from a single block of stone and weighed 18 tons. The door frame was fashioned from three separate monoliths and weighed 75 tons. Like many other parts of Persepolis, the Tachara has reliefs of tribute-bearing dignitaries. There are sculptured figures of lance-bearers carrying large rectangular wicker shields, attendants or servants with towel and perfume bottles, and a royal hero killing lions and monsters. There is also a bas-relief at the main doorway depicting Darius I wearing a crenellated crown covered with sheets of gold. The Tachara is connected to the south court by a double reversed stairway. Later under the reign of Artaxerxes III, a new stairway was added to the northwest of the Tachara which is connected to the main hall through a new doorway. On walls of these stairways, there are sculptured representations of figures such as servants, attendants and soldiers dressed in

Median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

and Persian costumes, as well as gift-bearing delegations flanking carved inscriptions.

Function

The function of the building, however, was more ceremonial than residential.

Gallery

2018-09-21 Iran, Persepolis, Tachara (from the southeast).jpg Tachar-Persepolis-Iran.tif, Persépolis, Irán, 2016-09-24, DD 25.jpg Persépolis, Irán, 2016-09-24, DD 23.jpg Persépolis, Irán, 2016-09-24, DD 14.jpg Tachar-palace (2).tif, Carving of the Battle of Shahriar and Lion on the wall of a gate. Tachar-palace (6).tif File:2018-09-21 Iran, Persepolis, Tachara (from the northeast).jpg File:2018-09-21 Iran, Persepolis, Tachara (from the west).jpg

References

External links