Shush( Susa); Oldest City of Iran

Shush( Susa); Oldest City of Iran

Shush is one of the oldest cities of the world and Iran. This city was the capital of Elamites and winter capital of Achaemenid Empires. Age of this city is 7000 years



Shush city was the cultural center located in 150 kilometers east of Tigris in Khuzestan Province. The city was the capital of Iran for 3000 years.

After Mongol invasions, the city nearly became vacant. Some documents of buying and selling houses and birth certificates are found here which show the age of civilization.

One of the best known sites in Susa area is Choga Zanbil

Choga Zanbil means ‘basket mound.’ It was built about 1250 BC by the king Untash-Napirisha, mainly to honor the great god Inshushinak.

Excavation dates‎: ‎1951–1961

Founded‎: ‎1250 BC

Location‎: ‎Khuzestan Province, Iran

Inscription‎: ‎1979 (3rd Session

The main reason ancient Mesopotamians built ziggurats has its roots in religious beliefs. They built them to make the temples closer to the heavens and therefore closer to the Gods. This is tied to the belief that Gods appeared on earth at the highest point in the landThe complex was protected by three concentric enclosure walls: an outer wall about 4 km in circumference enclosing a vast complex of residences and the royal quarter, where three monumental palaces have been unearthed (one is considered a tomb-palace that covers the remains of underground baked-brick structures containing the burials of the royal family); a second wall protecting the temples (Temenus); and the innermost wall enclosing the focal point of the ensemble, the ziggurat.

Image result for ziggurat iran

The ziggurat originally measured 105.2 m on each side and about 53 m in height, in five levels, and was crowned with a temple. Mud brick was the basic material of the whole ensemble. The ziggurat was given a facing of baked bricks, a number of which have cuneiform characters giving the names of deities in the Elamite and Akkadian languages. Though the ziggurat now stands only 24.75 m high, less than half its estimated original height, its state of preservation is unsurpassed.

Studies of the ziggurat and the rest of the archaeological site of Tchogha Zanbil containing other temples, residences, tomb-palaces, and water reservoirs have made an important contribution to our knowledge about the architecture of this period of the Elamites, whose ancient culture persisted into the emerging Achaemenid (First Persian) Empire, which changed the face of the civilised world at that time.

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