Pasargadae
— the first capital, still standing in the grass.
Not only on a wall.
“The first capital of the Persian empire, set on a dry upland plain in Fars. A six-tiered limestone tomb stands almost alone in the field — the resting place of Cyrus the Great, who founded the city around 546 BCE. The palaces are columns and foundations now. Sheep cross the ground where the audience hall stood. The wind carries most of the sound away. from the studio
Pasargadae, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The site sits on the Morghab plain in Fars Province at about 1,900 metres elevation, roughly 90 kilometres northeast of Persepolis and 130 kilometres from Shiraz. Cyrus the Great founded the city around 546 BCE as the first capital of the Achaemenid Empire, after his victory over the Median king Astyages. The complex includes the Tomb of Cyrus, the Tall-e Takht citadel platform, two royal palaces, a gatehouse, and a walled garden often cited as the earliest example of the Persian charbagh form. UNESCO listed Pasargadae as a World Heritage property in 2004.
The tomb is built of large white limestone blocks cut to fit without mortar, raised on six receding tiers to a small gabled chamber about 11 metres tall. Alexander the Great visited in 324 BCE and ordered its restoration after finding it disturbed; the Greek historian Arrian recorded the inscription, said to read "I am Cyrus, king, an Achaemenid." After the Islamic conquest the chamber was absorbed into a small mosque; the added carvings were cleared during conservation work in the 1970s. Nearby palace stones still carry trilingual cuneiform in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian.
Pasargadae is one of the quietest of the great Achaemenid sites. Few visitors reach it compared with Persepolis, about an hour and a half south by road; the access route runs through villages and wheat fields rather than tour-bus parking. The plain is open in every direction, ringed by the Zagros foothills. Spring brings short grass and red anemones around the tomb, summer turns hot and dry, winter is cold enough for snow on the citadel ridge. There is one small museum, a single ticket office, and no town immediately adjacent the ruins.