Apadana
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The Apadana (Persian: آپادانا) is the name of the great audience hall and portico at Persepolis and Susa. It belongs to the oldest building phase of the city of Persepolis, built during the first half of the 5th century BC as part of the original design by Darius the Great, its construction completed by Xerxes I. Modern scholarships "demonstrates the metaphorical nature of the Apadana reliefs as idealised social orders".[1]
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[edit] Apadana the term
As a word "Apadāna" (Old Persian, masc.) is used to designate a hypostyle hall, i.e., a palace or audience hall of stone construction with columns. The word is rendered in Elamite ha-ha-da-na and in Babylonian, ap-pa-da-an is etymologically ambiguous. It has been compared to Sanskrit apa-dhā "concealment", Greek apo-thēkē "storehouse". The word survives in later periods in Iran and outside Iran in several languages as a loan (including Arabic fadan, Armenian aparan-kh "palace".)[2]Apadana was the largest building Terrace. Its was most likely the main hall of the kings the columns reached 20m high and had complex capitals in the shape of bulls of lions. Here, the great king received the tribute from all the nations in the Achaemenid Empire, and gave presents in return. This place is Babylonian.
[edit] Measurements
The Apadana 100 square meters, its roof supported by 72 columns, each standing 24m tall. In Persepolis, the entire hall was destroyed in 331 BC by the army of Alexander the Great. The stone of the columns was used as building material for nearby settlements, but after reconstruction work in the 20th century, 14 are again erect.
The Apadana in Susa, was - like the city itself, largely abandoned, and pillaged for building material.
[edit] Description
Access to the hall is given by two monumental stairways, on the north and on the east. These are decorated by reliefs, showing delegates of the 23 subject nations of the Persian Empire paying tribute to Darius I, who is represented seated centrally. The various delegates are shown in great detail, giving insight into the costume and equipment of the various peoples of Persia in the 5th century BC. There are inscriptions in Old Persian and Elamite.
[edit] Bas-reliefs
 The Tigrakhauda (Scythian) relief of eastern stairs. |
[edit] Notes
- ^ M. Root (1986) p. 1.
- ^ R. Schmitt, Apadana i. Term, in Encyclopaedia Iranica
[edit] References
- Cool Root, Margaret (1985). "The Parthenon Frieze and the Apadana Reliefs at Persepolis: Reassessing a Programmatic Relationship". American Journal of Archaeology 89: pp. 103-122.
- Schmitt, R.; Stronach, D.. "Apadana". Encyclopaedia Iranica (Routledge & Kegan Paul) 2. http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/unicode/v2f2/v2f2a019.html.
[edit] External links
- http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/PA/IRAN/PAAI/PAAI_Apadana.html
- http://www.persepolis3d.com/control_structures/apadana.htm
- http://www.artarena.force9.co.uk/ma1.html
- A virtual reconstruction of Apadana: persepolis3D
