Flames Over The Palace

A hall which could hold 10,000 people was a central feature of Persepolis, the enormous Palace complex built by Darius I in what is now southern Iran. Yet the roof of the hall was supported only by only 36 pillars. The secret: the roof was made of huge cedar beams from Lebanon, which could support a larger span than was possible with stones. Persepolis - a name that also came to be applied to the city which grew up around the palace - is a corruption of the Greek name for that palace, “Perceptolis”. The Persians themselves called the palace complex Parsa, after the surrounding province, which was the true Persian homeland. Darius began Persepolis in about 520 BC, and his successors completed it. It remained intact for less than two centuries, however. The wooden palace was burnt to the ground by the invading troops of Alexander the Great in 331 BC.