Apadana Palace of Susa

The Apadana palace of Susa is located in the city of the same name (Khuzestān region) and was the winter palace of the Achaemenid kings and the main palace of Darius I who was built around the years 515-521 a. C. on monuments and remains from the Elamite era.

The other names of this building built of stone, cedar wood and raw bricks are Dario's palace and Susa's palace; the walls are in adobe with a brick facade and stone columns.

The interior walls were covered with enamelled brick and depicted images of the Immortals (elite unit of the imperial guard of the Great Persian King), a winged lion and the flower of the blue bell.

This palace had different parts such as: the audience hall, the harem (part reserved for women and children), the entrance door, the building where to welcome guests, more than 110 rooms and even 6 courtyards (3 central courtyards) lined with red bricks. Important parts of this palace at the time of Artaxerxes I (461 BC) suffered a fire and were rebuilt during the reign of Artaxerxes II (359 BC).

Like the other Achaemenid palaces, this building was completely destroyed at the time of the unexpected attack of Alexander the Great. What is left of it like: the columns, the capitals, the winged lion, necklaces and bracelets of gold and turquoise, pottery and glazed crockery etc. is preserved in foreign museums - like the Louvre in Paris - and in the local ones.

This monument in the 2015 has been included in the UNESCO world heritage.