Achaemenid Architecture

Achaemenid architecture is the building tradition of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, expressed above all in the ceremonial capital of Persepolis, begun by Darius I around 518 BC and largely completed under his son Xerxes I. Its palaces were organized around enormous hypostyle halls called apadana, roofed with timber and supported by rows of tall stone columns topped with distinctive double-animal capitals, most commonly paired bulls. The Hundred-Column Hall at Persepolis, built under Artaxerxes I, measured roughly seventy by seventy metres. Achaemenid builders worked chiefly in stone, decorating walls and staircases with ornate bas-relief carvings depicting tribute processions and royal ceremony, and the style also produced administrative cities such as Susa and Ecbatana alongside royal tombs cut into rock.