Pasargade (The Mausoleum Of Ciro Il Grande)

Along the road that connects Esfahan in Shiraz, in the plain of Morghab, is the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great. The mausoleum building includes a quadrangular room that sits above a six-tiered podium. The building was built with blocks of white stone.

Between the ceiling of the room and the level of the top of the roof of the mausoleum there are about three meters of space and in this space the place for two tombs has been prepared: one is considered the place of eternal rest of Cyrus and the other the burial of his wife Cassandane, mother of Cambyses.

The two tombs measure 2 × 1 meters one and 1,95 × 0,95 meters the other and are connected to each other by a narrow corridor along 1 meter and wide 35 cm.

The building has been recently restored.

In the period of the Atabegs of the Fars (XIII century) the plain of Morghab reached a great prosperity and the area of ​​the mausoleum was turned into a mosque. There are some inscriptions related to this event that date it back (ramadan 612 (= January 1216)) and the name of the Atabeg Sa'd ben Zangi on some stones that are found in different points of the area.