Persepolis,
Ancient capital of the powerful kings of persia,
This site is one of the most important archaeological site on this planet,
A mysterious Metropolis at the heart of the greatest empire the ancient world has
ever seen,
They were so powerful
they had no real rival,
What is this city,
And what can it reveal about the world's first great empire,
And it really reveals a revolution in how to run an empire,
Today investigators have unique access to the ruins of this ancient Metropolis,
They use pioneering technology to forensically hunt for clues to map this last city,
On earth it's dark past,
And discover the hidden story of the first imperial powerhouse in the world,
This was once
the greatest and richest city on earth,
To unlock the secrets of ancient persia,
We resurrect the empire's mighty capital,
The lost city of persepolis,
We digitally reconstruct the king's luxurious palaces,
Explore their magnificent rock-cut tombs,
And reveal their groundbreaking engineering innovations,
To discover how the persians rise to dominate the ancient world,
Uh,
Persepolis,
Located in the plains of southern Iran,
It is a colossal stone city
and circled by the zagros mountains,
Built in the sixth century bc,
Today this vast city lies in ruins and is wrapped in mystery,
Now our cameras have unique access to follow investigators at persepolis
as they explore this once mighty ancient capital,
It's truly a marvel obligation word,
There's
no other psi like this,
It's total unit,
In the sixth century bc,
Persepolis is the beating heart of the first
world empire,
Persia,
It controls almost half of earth's population,
Spectacular ruins here hold the key to it's rise to power,
Ancient writers describe the city as a marvel to behold,
The ancient Greeks right of a magnificent palace complex at the heart of persepolis,
Below,
Are the private houses and gardens of wealthy citizens,
All fenced in by a triple wall topped with battles,
Beyond it
the city continues to sprawl for two miles,
And a majestic city gate marks the outer limits of persepolis,
It's a vast Metropolis the ancient Greeks described
as the richest city under the sun,
Is there any truth to their account,
Archaeologist karaj Mohammad honey is an expert in geophysics,
He's on a mission to find traces of the lost city,
The director writers
describe,
A large city,
Bigger down the tray serene,
The ruins of persepolis stand on a massive artificial terrace carved into a mountain,
It's the size of six modern city blocks,
And surrounded with tall masonry walls,
At the entrance of fifty five foot tall gate,
Leads to an extravagant complex of splendid
palaces courtyards and vast magnificent halls,
It is the Jewel in purchase crown,
But the Greeks describe a much grander city,
Where's the rest of it,
Writers say the first wall surrounding
persepolis is just over twenty three feet tall,
At the base of the palace complex
quraish examines the terrace wall,
Their wall wineries from tartine two four two one feats,
Our aging twenty seven feet high,
This sea maybe the first
all the tree wall mentioned by the Greek writers,
If this is the first wall
where are the other two and the gate,
In the persepolis plane there are no obvious ancient structures to be seen,
But quraish believes these walls may still be
buried underground waiting to be unearthed,
Garage uses a magnetometer to undertake a magnetic survey in the field north of the
complex,
His results reveal an incredible structure hidden just a few feet beneath the earth's
surface,
There are a number of animals here,
Clearly,
This a manmade structure here
on it's huge,
The survey reveals a hidden complex containing a series of rooms,
Each around two hundred square feet in size,
Is it part of the lost city,
Karaj compares his magnetic survey to plans of the royal terrace,
It's layout
and the it's orientation lines up
with a building on the trace
complex,
It is trying to sagas the site is the heart of the last seat,
This newly discovered set of buildings is also for the persian royalty,
We have a lower part of the city
and on the tourists,
We have the upper part,
This seems
to match good creature
description of this,
Quraysh returned to the results of his magnetic survey to hunt for the missing walls
and gate of persepolis,
He makes an intriguing find,
There are more animals here,
I can't see two-line running peril
in east or west orientations,
These are
two massive
walls,
The newly discovered double wall and palaces suggest the royal quarter of persepolis
is much larger than experts previously thought,
But the Greek sources suggest the city of persepolis extends even further beyond
these walls,
Quraysh searches foretell tale signs of ancient buildings,
Two miles from the royal quarter he spots an unusual feature on the landscape,
As strange knee injuries
a
number of mount here,
Karachi examines the results of another magnetic survey,
It reveals the ghostly outline of a massive structure buried beneath the surface,
We found
a large structure here,
It's
encourage well,
Here archaeologists uncover hundreds of glazed bricks from the dig site,
What is this mysterious structure,
A clue lies more than five hundred miles away in the ancient city of Babylon,
Capital to the babylonian empire,
It is one of the first cities to fall to the persians on their campaign of conquest,
Guarding Babylon at it's entrance
is the ishtar gate,
A forty five foot tall edifice flanked by huge defensive walls
all faced with brilliant blue glazed brick,
Like the mysterious structure unearthed in persepolis,
It is decorated with carved reliefs of exotic animals,
Of the new discovery and persepolis bears a
striking similarity to Babylon's ishtar gate,
What can it reveal about the size of the city and the rise of the persian empire,
Uh,
In five thirty nine bc the persian king Cyrus the great conquered Babylon,
This victory adds over two hundred thousand square miles of territory to his empire,
And one of the most advanced cities of ancient times,
To commemorate his victory,
Cyrus builds a replica of Babylon's ishtar gate,
On the edge of what will become persepolis,
Kilrush believes it may Mark the boundaries of a new city
and be the start of the grand entrance to persepolis,
It's
encouraging develop,
This is Thatcher is the gate
of the lost city,
Karachi's fines match many of the Greek tales of a huge walled city,
Incredibly their accounts are rooted in reality,
The Greeks also claimed that the legendary Metropolis is full of treasure and
unimaginable riches,
Uh
does this law city truly hold the wealth of the persian empire,
Of clues carved into the walls of persepolis may provide the answer,
Uh,
Persepolis,
An ancient stone Metropolis and capital of the world's first great empire,
Today only a small fraction of the city remains,
But many clues of it's past glory are embedded in the fabric of the architecture,
The epo Donna palace is one of the first buildings constructed at persepolis,
On it's monumental staircase
exquisite reliefs show scenes of people arriving at the city,
And a royal declaration written in several languages,
What can these clues reveal about the palace at and the persian empire,
Working in persepolis it's fantastic,
It is one of the most important
archaeological science in the war,
Archaeologist Ali a study investigates the inscription on the staircase,
Ali believes it is a vital clue to how the persian kings rule over their vast empire,
This description surely were
engraved to be sin,
The text declares the persian ruler as the king of kings,
The king of kings
is a key phrase
in the persian empire,
Which means that,
There was a great king who ruled over the the
smaller kings,
The inscription reveals how the persian kings govern their world empire,
Once they conquer a nation
they keep the local kings in power,
They are tolerant,
As long as they are obeyed,
How vast are the territories under persian control,
Ali examines the freeze on the great staircase,
These are procession of different subject nations of persian empire
who brough to the gifts for the great kings,
The frieze shows the individual nations that make up the persian empire,
Yeah are the geeks,
They brought bows some takes times,
And holler
awards,
Here are the Egyptians they are identified by their long groves,
The persians capture much more than Babylon,
Ali discovers that Egypt the cradle of ancient culture and independent for most of
it's history,
Is now part of this mighty new empire,
Incredibly,
It also incorporates some Greek city states,
The territories don't stop there,
The long procession depicts many more peoples,
The relief is remarkably detailed,
Helping Ali identify who everyone is,
There are many other nations here
Armenians medians assyrians new Orleans,
This vast scene reveals the expanse of the persian empire,
It spreads from eastern Europe to the indus river,
From the Sahara desert to the western edge of the himalayas,
In total the wall displays twenty three nations
covering an astonishing two point one million square miles,
The relief reveals the local rulers are bringing gifts here to persepolis,
It's proof of the size and power of the persian empire
and it explains the city's legendary wealth,
Who is the ruler of this enormous empire,
Ollie follows the freeze to track down the emperor,
He arrives at a depiction of a larger than life figure,
All of the gifts from the subject nations,
Were given to the great king
who was there is great,
A successor to Cyrus the great,
Darius the first rules the mighty persian empire from five fifty bc,
During it's golden age,
These are some of the most important and finest gift from their respective regions,
They were the best and most luxurious objects from each nation,
The wealth of persepolis the Greeks described can be seen in these stone reliefs,
Darius the king of kings grows richer and richer as his territories pay a tribute
each year,
He uses this wealth to build the first palaces at persepolis,
Uh,
But the persians are traditionally a nomadic people,
And just a few hundred years earlier they had little knowledge of monumental
architecture,
How do they create these colossal buildings,
A clue can be found in the artistic elements visible all over the city,
The upper part of doorways and
niches,
As we see here,
Just taken from Egyptian architecture,
Hidden among the ruins of the site
Ali examines clues of more destinations,
Lotus flowers,
These are ancient Greek symbols,
To build persepolis the persians used the genius of all their empire,
Uh,
Darius rules half of the world's population,
Giving him a huge pool of skilled workers,
For persepolis his buildings
he uses babylonian brick makers,
They bake the bricks and fire kilns to strengthen them,
Greek and Egyptian stonemasons car of the palace columns and bass reliefs
that decorate his palaces,
And goldsmiths from anatolia fashion exquisite golden ornaments for his banquets,
So
this is the,
Of persia
that the creators are referring to,
It's not just gold and silver
it's knowledge,
However some innovations at persepolis are totally unique,
Can clues inside it's magnificent palaces
revealed how the ancient engineers of persepolis
creates a wonder of the ancient world,
Uh,
Persepolis,
The persian empire's ceremonial capital,
Created from the conquered wealth and assimilated knowledge of it's vast territories,
On the terrace complex
archaeologists unearth the epo Donna palace,
A huge building and an architectural masterpiece,
Behind forty foot doors thirty six pillars soar sixty five feet into the air,
Each column is gently tapered,
And topped with nine foot tall stone capitals,
Supporting a huge wooden roof,
How do the engineers create a monumental building unlike anything the world has seen
before,
Aaliyah Saudi investigates the base of the columns of the
Donna palace,
The base has a circumference of seventy one inch,
He measures the distance between the pillars,
The pillars are far from each other,
It's fun as pays two hundred fifty six
ins apart,
A distance of twenty one feet separates each column,
The wide spaces between each pillar make persepolis unique,
In Egypt and Babylon,
Ancient engineers build structures with pillars no more than eleven feet apart,
Any wider and their roofs collapse,
To add to this engineering puzzle,
In persepolis the pillars are much narrower too,
This doesn't make any sense,
Usually if you want to have the huge structure,
You need to compensate the distance between the pillars,
By wider columns,
But here is quite opposite,
How do the persian engineers achieve this remarkable feat of engineering,
The answer lies in the beautifully carved
capitals on the sixty five foot tall columns,
Perched at the top of each pillar is a huge sculpture of a two-headed beast,
Each one weighs up to ten tons
and stretches twelve feet wide,
Ali examines a broken capital that now lies on the palace floor,
It might seem strange who have such heavy load on
top,
But by having such a wide capitals
it reduces
the distance between allow that session points,
Animals sculptures placed back to back on the column capitals
function as brackets to support a wooden roof beam,
A short block across their flat backs
broadens the capital
to support additional beams,
So the builders can construct the roof on top,
These capitals are not just some beautiful elements,
They are key structural components,
The apa Donna palace is a true feat of engineering,
How did the ancient architects create it's groundbreaking design,
Ali surveys the site,
What's striking
when you view to the building on the tracks,
There is a Harmony into the layout
of the structure,
Everything fits together perfectly,
The measurements reveal a recurring pattern,
The same ratio of one point six one eight can be seen everywhere,
The height of the entrance
with their widths
the height of the columns
that adjacent columns,
These proportions are based on a mathematical principle called
golden ratio,
The golden ratio is an enigmatic number,
Found in nature,
Art,
And architecture,
The Parthenon in Athens is an ancient wonder,
Built seventy years after the abdallah palace,
Us,
Fifty eight towering columns wrap around this colossal temple,
Proudly boasting it's engineering achievements,
Of the proportions of it's floor plan columns and facade
used the golden ratio,
Just like the apa Donna palace,
Uh
a persian engineering marvel may have served as the blueprint for this wonder of the
ancient world,
Uh,
What's incredible is that we can see these mathematical principles,
Here before
Greek mathematicians begin studying it's preparedness,
The design of the abdallah palace is truly groundbreaking for it's time,
The persians incorporate precise proportions into it's plan
to create an imposing building,
The likes of which have never been seen before,
It's lofty ceilings tall columns and huge central hall are a clear display of the
power wealth and glory
the persian kings possess,
The afa Donna palace is a structural masterpiece built using some of the most
advanced technologies the world has ever seen,
It embodies lessons the persians learn from the rest of the ancient world,
How did the ancient engineers carve out the huge blocks for this stone city,
Uh what can Darius the great's final resting place reveal about how the persian kings
rule over their enormous empire,
The lost city of persepolis is a marvel of the ancient world,
At it's heart
a splendid palatial complex
stands on an immense terrace carved out of a mountain,
It's walls constructed from huge stone blocks,
Each one,
Five feet wide and weighing up to thirty tons,
Stacked together with surgical precision,
In the lower city,
Are colossal buildings and massive monolithic gates,
How did the ancient engineers construct this architectural marvel out of stone,
And create a permanent symbol of power for the persian empire,
Clues can be found in the ancient stone quarries that surround persepolis,
Karachi Muhammad honey investigates,
The stone here is calcite limestone,
It's the main material builders use in the magnificent palaces of persepolis,
What's great bout calcite is
it's a firmly soft,
Easy to caulk
shape on smolt,
It's also a throng
which are laws to our ships to build huge building,
Karachi explores further,
He searches for clues to how ancient workers quarried the stone used at persepolis,
What's amazing here,
Besides has been untouched,
Or cute thousand years,
He inspects the rocky surface,
Looking closely,
I can see she's a Mark
of the
ancient,
Stone worker
here,
Huge half carved limestone blocks remain unfinished on the cliff face,
These blocks range in weight from two to fifty tons each,
Workers car of the blocks and load them onto wooden rafts,
To float them down river to persepolis,
On the building site they chiseled the blocks into shape,
And smooth them down with rasps and files,
Then they polished the blocks with the skin of sharks,
Or the fibers of palm trees to achieve a marble like sheet,
Finally the workers use cranes to lift the blocks into place on the palace terraces,
The city's stone quarries revealed some of the rarest and most advanced engineering
techniques in the ancient world,
But the ancient builders of persepolis face a problem,
Persia sits on a major faultline between the African arabian and eurasian plates,
This makes it prone to earthquakes,
How do the engineers ensure the huge stone buildings of persepolis don't collapse
when hit by a seismic shockwave,
A clue can be found at twenty five miles from persepolis at the tomb of the city's
founder,
Cyrus the great,
Built at the same time as persepolis,
Cyrus's tomb stands on a pyramid base made up of huge limestone blocks,
Incredibly,
Experts believe it is the earliest evidence of an earthquake resistant structure,
If a building is rigid and firmly set in the ground,
It absorbs the shock wave energy from earthquakes
causing it to collapse,
Cyrus builds his tomb over a bed of small flat stones,
And a base of three smooth cut stone layers,
With no mortar in between,
So that in an earthquake,
The upper layers can slide over the lower ones,
Dissipating the shockwave energy
and protecting the tomb,
At persepolis the engineers go further to
ensure it's buildings are structurally sound,
What's incredible here
is that each Estonia block is
unique,
There is no
standardization of size,
The blocks are stuck together like a giant Jigsaw puzzle,
And positioned so precisely,
A sheet of paper can barely fit between the cracks,
If you look at the corner of
this stone
here,
Has six side that interlock
by
abducens the song,
This makes the whole structure
much more stable,
Over hundreds of years several huge earthquakes hit persepolis,
Just one of these is enough to flatten a city,
But the palace complex remains unscathed during it's prime,
All down to the ingenuity of the builders of this lost city,
The cutting edge technology at persepolis allows the persian kings to create an
ancient wonder,
A stone statement of the power and glory of the persian empire,
Are the skilled builders of persepolis part of a giant slave army
imported from across the mighty persian empire,
Is slavery the key to it's success
and it's incredible rise to power,
Persepolis,
Capital of the mighty persian empire
and a marvel of ancient engineering,
It's wonders stand toe to toe with the greatest
architectural achievements of antiquity,
The seven wonders of the ancient world rest on spectacular feats of engineering,
The great pyramid of giza,
The hanging gardens of Babylon,
The temple of Artemis,
The colossus of rhodes,
And the lighthouse of Alexandria,
All inspire awe
and wonder,
But the seven wonders are all built by societies that use slave labor,
Is persepolis built by slaves,
Does slave labor power the mighty persian empire,
A clue can be found at the royal treasury of persepolis,
An enormous building housing the accumulated wealth of the persian empire,
Royal treasury is one of the oldest building of persepolis
according to the Greek writers it holds more than
two thousand five hundred tons of gold,
And covalent with one hundred billion dollars today,
But it's not gold archaeologists discover when they dig here,
At the southeast corner of the terrace complex
excavators unearthed a mysterious set of Clay tablets,
The majority are inscribed in an ancient language called
Isla might,
Over seven hundred tablets,
Are found here,
There are mass nearest payments and in voices,
At the edge of the great stone terrace archaeologists discover even more tablets,
Today they're stored on site at the archives of persepolis,
Ali has been given special access to study them up close,
By discovering this tablets
we have a primary source which can tell us
what was happening in personalities and impairs an empire,
Before their discovery
most information about persepolis comes from secondary sources
such as the Greeks writing over two hundred years later,
Now
experts have a contemporary record written in persepolis his prime,
The numbers incredible,
There are over thirty thousand tablets discovered in principles,
The sheer volume
of these tablets,
Evidence persians skill in administration
and record keeping,
The huge number of tablets suggests persepolis is an administrative center for the
persian empire,
The number of languages written here
show us that persepolis was a highly sophisticated
and multicultural society,
But there's a problem,
The tablets have been smashed into hundreds of thousands of fragments,
To discover all the secrets of the shattered tablets,
Experts must put the fragments back together,
They painstakingly search for telltale patterns and phrases,
They pieced them together to recreate the tablets and reveal the text,
The tablets are evidence of the incredible organization of the city
and of a highly complex economy,
It details taxes
property rights
asians for animals even,
As well as nationalities
skills,
And payment to the workers,
Incredibly,
The tablets also reveal the laborers at persepolis aren't slaves
but handsomely paid workers,
What's incredible about these documents
they showed that,
Workers were paid
in silver,
It must be one of the most prestigious construction work in the ancient time,
The tablets reveal persepolis is at the epicenter of an economic revolution,
Hundreds of scribes document every financial transaction,
They write one receipt for the state,
And one for the worker,
They pay workers of all social ranks in wine sheep
and grain,
And in later years silver coins,
They pay men and women equally,
And mothers get paid maternity leave,
Rights only introduced in the western world in the last century,
This shows persepolis is a very forward-thinking,
At dusk community
way ahead of it's time,
The tablets revealed the key to the persian empire's success lies in it's
administrative skills,
In persepolis,
The persians build a huge bureaucracy to help the emperor manage his massive empire,
How does Darius ensure the loyalty of his subjects
and keep his vast territories under control,
Hidden clues at his final resting place may reveal answers,
And discoveries unearthed that persepolis provide evidence of the persian empire's
legendary army,
Uh,
The lost city of persepolis in present day Iran,
A testament to the power and wealth of the persian emperors,
And key to understanding their incredible success,
Under the reign of Darius,
Persia is the largest empire the ancient world has ever seen,
How do the persian kings keep peace throughout the empire,
Clues can be found at the royal necropolis four miles north of the terrace palaces of
persepolis,
Behind the one hundred and twenty feet tall carved facades,
Are deep caverns,
Extending nearly thirty five feet into the cliffs,
Yeah,
They are split into three vaults,
Each containing three coffins,
Above the two mentions an intricate carving shows Darius the great with his subject
nations making offerings to a persian god,
In the time of Darius
persians don't Bury their dead,
So why does he build this necropolis,
And what can it reveal about how he rules his vast empire,
Aaliyah study investigates the royal tombs of the persian kings,
Each one is a sculptural masterpiece stretching sixty feet wide,
King Darius the great's tomb sits center place in the ancient necropolis,
This type of term was first
used here by Darius
himself,
An upper part of this cross,
We see values standing,
Before the great
urine and god novel Mazda,
A horror master is a god in the zoroastrian faith,
The main religion of ancient persia,
It is one of the world's oldest religions,
Zoroastrians
usually put the body of the people in a special tava
to be exposed and consumed by the Walters,
The tongue of Darius is very unusual in
persia,
The earliest and most famous rock-cut tombs are in Egypt,
Darius chooses a tomb inspired by Egyptian architecture for his final resting place,
Breaking away from persian traditions,
Why,
What can this choice reveal about how Darius runs his vast empire,
A clue can be found on the edge of the persian empire
over one thousand miles from persepolis
in Egypt,
Buried beneath the desert sands of secara lies the Sarah p m,
A huge mausoleum built for a mysterious ancient Egyptian culture,
Uh every chamber holds a massive granite sarcophagus,
But these aren't coffins for kings,
Inside each sarcophagus,
Are the intricately mummified remains
of an
opis bowl,
The ancient Egyptians believe these balls are
the incarnation of the Egyptian god osiris,
Can clues unearthed here reveal why Darius breaks away from persian traditions,
Mohammed youssef is an archaeologist at the Egyptian antiquities ministry,
He investigates this strange ancient cult site,
In say the Serbian,
We have at least twenty four sarcophagus,
Each sacred bull burial is commissioned by a ruling pharaoh,
How does the Sarah p m inspired Darius is strange break from persian tradition,
Persia rules Egypt between the sixth and fourth centuries bc,
Mohammed searches for cult bulls buried during this period,
Gordon
who's the plan of the Serbian
it's all what energy political order
from the beginning to the end,
In a hidden corner he finds a huge granite sarcophagus,
We have Lane of hieroglyphics here,
It is good enough you
is very weak,
The faint markings revealed the name of the persian king that buries this bull,
Headed his,
Conclusive congresses,
Come bases the second is the son and successor to Cyrus the great
and the conqueror of Egypt,
This is a prolific lion
and this is Janine which Egyptian gift for him
with sutera,
This is evidence that come by sees respects the cult,
And berries a bull here,
But what about his successor,
Darius the great,
There is no cult bull sarcophagus in the Sarah p m that bears the name of the persian
king,
But Mohammed believes evidence of Darius his involvement can be found on a steely
discovered in an empty tomb,
It reveals the date it is built
and the name of the ruler who orders it's construction,
It's own bear,
Dates back to
circa four years from,
The role of king,
Darius,
Just students proof
that
baseball is buried here from the time of
king Darius,
The evidence suggests the persian kings Darius and embraces
don't impose their gods or their beliefs on Egypt,
But respect the local religion and customs of their newly conquered territory,
Not only do they tolerate strange foreign rituals,
They participate in them,
It's an entirely new method of leadership,
And it explains the royal necropolis near persepolis,
Darius is tomb symbolizes the persian king's willingness to embrace new religion and
funerary rites,
So much so,
He's willing to bet his eternal life on it,
Uh
is this the key to how the persian kings keep peace throughout the empire,
George Heath white is an expert in ancient babylonian texts,
He believes a clue to the persian king's approach to religious tolerance and imperial
control,
Can be found on an ancient Clay cylinder,
The cylinder was discovered in the ruins of Babylon
and dates to the sixth century bc,
It's surface is covered with forty five lines of text
that described the persian conquest of the city,
Even though the text is broken enough of it survives that we can recreate the message
of the text,
The damaged cylinder is written in the extinct language of Babylon,
Using a piece of soft Clay
George begins recreating the ancient text,
Reassembled from several broken pieces,
The ancient Clay cylinder contains a declaration in cuneiform script
in the name of persian king Cyrus the great,
It's very damaged the original cylinder,
Or we can just make out the word,
La muti,
Which means evil,
Sorry saying by writing the cylinder that the king of Babylon laminitis
is disrespectful
he's evil
and Cyrus is going to come in and change that he's gonna come in and be a true
babylonian king,
Cyrus declares that the babylonian god marduk
sanctions his takeover,
It's been babylonian
history it's,
Marduk
balloon rabbit,
Tarun nishi shoe,
And shirty Don Carter,
Who lebar shun,
His sarum,
Haddish,
Paris,
In this line Cyrus is trying to show that he's a legitimate ruler,
The god marduk himself chose him to rule,
But Cyrus doesn't just use the foreign religion to justify his rule,
He also appears to Grant religious and cultural freedom to his new subjects,
When Cyrus conquered Babylon,
He finds the city is filled with people captured by the babylonian kings,
The babylonian kings had,
Taken
a bunch of different people into exile,
The assyrians,
People of the utopians,
People from modern-day Syria and Egypt
but also the Jews from
Judah,
Cyrus sets the captive people free,
So Harry Reid in babylonian,
This shoe new,
Upa Hiroshima,
Tear
admission,
And that means,
I gathered all the people and return them to their settlements,
Those who stay are free to follow their own religion,
This policy was incredibly unusual,
Is letting them worship their own gods and have their own cultural identity,
But his Cyrus true to his word or is this all just persian propaganda,
George believes a clue can be found in the Bible,
The old testament book of Ezra records Cyrus's move,
Thus saith Cyrus king of persia,
The lord god of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth
and he hath charged me to build him
an house at Jerusalem,
So Cyrus is decreeing hair just like in the Cyrus cylinder
that the Jews could return home,
The book of Ezra also praises Cyrus's successors,
So we see that,
The persian kings Darius and
artist ircc he's,
Also,
Had this policy of religious tolerance,
The Cyrus cylinder reveals the persians revolutionary religious tolerance and how
they run their empire,
But even with these policies
not everyone wants to join the mighty persian empire,
How does Darius use his formidable army to force rebellious nations into submission,
Clues at persepolis reveal the terrifying might of the persian military and their
elite warriors,
And new discoveries in the remote corners of the empire revealed the secret to their
military success,
In the sixth century bc the persian kings build persepolis,
It is the richest city in the world
and capital to an enormous empire,
But just two hundred years earlier they control only a small territory,
How do the persians come to dominate the ancient world with such speed,
In persepolis
archaeologists unearth a mysterious building that could explain this incredible rise
to power,
It's an extraordinary ancient mega structure,
In persia as golden age this is the largest building and persepolis after the
Donna palace,
The throne hall,
Inside it
precisely one hundred columns rise up
to create a space the size of an aircraft hangar,
Here the persian king shows off his most fearsome to,
His arm,
There is room for five thousand soldiers,
Only a tiny fraction of the persian army,
Which according to legend numbers a million men,
How do they conquer the world,
Sophie downs hunts for clues in sardis in modern-day Turkey,
Over fifteen hundred miles away from persepolis
this ancient capital city is one of the first to fall to the persians,
Uh
then expanded their empire
to
the west towards his father's quest to reach,
Sophie investigates the fall of the city,
She examines a section of the site,
A massive trench twenty feet deep,
In the courtyard of this house the body of an old man was found,
He is a civilian say this suggests that it wasn't just the soldiers
the diets
in the sack but many civilians as well,
Analysis of the mutilated bones reveals lethal wounds all over the body,
He is only one of many victims of the attack,
Um,
The evidence reveals the ferocity of the persian assault,
But Sophie thinks there's more to the story,
She wants to find out what happens to start us after the persian victory,
That numerous bite marks across the city,
Which suggests that it was pretty comprehensively
burned to the ground,
The city's fortification wall made of mudbrick
is reduced to a melted and vitrified mass,
It is evidence of the intensity of the fire that devours sardis,
The archaeological evidence suggests that it
may have been more brutal than we thought,
Sardis becomes a persian city,
The fall of this powerful capital shocks the ancient world,
The persian army games of fierce reputation,
And forces many neighboring nations to submit,
How do the persians become such remarkable warriors,
What's more
the answer lies in persepolis,
Ali examines an intriguing carving on the northern entrance to the palace,
These soldiers,
Are part of the Paris national army with their lances here we see the,
Daggers,
Were very,
Well trained and the string,
As he looks close up,
Ali finds imagery of the army all around persepolis,
Among them,
Persia is most infamous brigade,
These are elites
of the persian army
in more tons,
They will be well
skilled there
because they were,
The,
Bodyguards of the most important
person in the empire the king
of the kings,
The images reveal that the persian army is divided into specialist forces,
Ali believes this is crucial to their success,
In battle
the soldiers follow a strategy that weakens the enemy until complete surrender,
The persian archers start off the attack,
They hide behind a shield wall
and shoot one hundred thousand arrows per minute
to decimate the enemy,
Then comes the notorious persian cavalry,
They harassed the enemy with hit and run attacks
shooting arrows and throwing Spears,
And finally persia purges elite infantry,
The immortals,
They are the most feared fighters,
Uh
in their tight formation fallen soldiers are replaced immediately,
Making it seem like they are impossible to kill,
With this elite army,
The persians create one of the biggest empires the world has ever seen,
But with an empire so large,
How quickly can the king strike back if there's
trouble far from his base and persepolis,
Clues unearthed in the far-flung corners of the empire may provide the answer,
And at persepolis,
New investigations reveal a mysterious labyrinth
of tunnels hidden beneath the lost city,
Carved into the mountains of southern Iran,
Archaeologists rediscover the lost city of persepolis,
It is at the heart of a huge empire
that covers an area over two point one million square miles,
Clues inside this stone Metropolis help
unlock the mysteries of the gigantic persian empire,
The inscriptions of stephanus talk about how the empire extends from the shores of
one seat and shows another sea from one desert to knob desert,
How do the persians rules such an enormous expanse of land,
The answer could lie with a huge engineering structure built by,
As most powerful king,
Darius the first,
Ancient writers say that king Darius builds a vast road across his empire,
It is surfaced with packed gravel,
And is over twenty feet wide in some places,
It's called the royal road,
An ancient superhighway,
The first of it's kind in the world,
Alongside it,
Darius builds weigh stations,
Stopping points where people can rest,
Comfortable living quarters surround an open courtyard where travelers from all
cultures meet,
Is Darius is royal road
really as impressive as legends say,
Aaliyah Saudi is on a mission to find traces of the lost road at persepolis,
He examines the site around the city,
And this small valley there are some bernays of a
cuts
mounting,
Is changed maybe these long
two part other royal road,
This mountain stands directly between persepolis and another major persian city,
Plus the garden,
Ali believes the only way to connect the cities
is to cut through it,
The most important and embarrassing part which is cut,
On the
mountain
is ten meter highs,
Ancient persians carve a thirty foot valley through solid rock,
This rare find here supports the legend,
Nothing seems to stand in the way of Darius his ambitious building project,
But can he really extend the royal road to all the corners of the huge empire,
Virgin Addison mez investigates in a macia,
In northern Turkey,
Over twelve hundred miles from persepolis,
Here he and his team make a remarkable discovery,
We have discovered
this road here
made of cobblestones and knit together in
close proximity,
Local rulers use nearby materials to build this road,
But virgin suspects it could be part of the persian road network,
He examines the site
and identifies a strange structure,
We have a fire altar here this place is where the early zoroastrian
religious practices were implemented
and the shipping is done,
Zoroastrianism is the ancient religion of the persians,
For Burton,
This is conclusive proof,
The road
is a partial road,
This incredible find is evidence that Darius has road network spreads all the way to
northern Turkey,
Twelve hundred miles from the city of persepolis,
But how fast can an imperial courier travel on the royal road,
Ancient Greek accounts provide tantalizing clues,
I noticed this tells us the professionals had,
A system,
For sending messages
along the royal road,
Which occurred so travel about two thousand miles in nine days,
A messenger on horseback would normally take two months for a journey of this length,
Sophie wants to find out if the persians can do it in nine days,
She thinks the way stations Darius builds could hold the answer,
She marks out the places where archaeologists find remains,
Here we have three weigh stations that have actually been found in the archaeology,
And the in line
and they're about fifty miles apart from each other,
If the persians position rested horses and men at each station,
The couriers can work as a relay,
Each courier can travel the distance between two way stations at full speed,
And pass on the message to the next horseman,
Over a day the message would cover an astonishing one hundred and eighty miles,
That means that you could cover a distance
of two thousand miles and about twelve to fourteen days,
So,
This is maybe slightly exaggerating but he's actually
pretty accurate,
Darius is massive communication network is the fastest in the ancient world,
It is so efficient that it's still remembered today,
Witnesses also says but neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night
can stop the carriers
and this is still the motto of the us postal service today,
If anything happens in the extreme corners of the persian empire
the king can find out about it in under two weeks,
He can respond swiftly to any challenge to his rule
and quickly restore control,
Uh,
Darius his road network stretches from the indus valley all the way to the
mediterranean,
Spanning a staggering twenty three hundred miles,
He uses it to quickly send messengers,
As well as his army,
To every corner of his empire,
He also builds the first Suez canal,
Linking the red sea to the nile,
Providing easy access to all of Egypt,
It is monumental,
Wide enough for two of his warships to pass each other,
Giving the persians commercial and military control of the region,
Darius is communication network is crucial and controlling the vast empire,
It ensures his presence everywhere,
But why do the persians construct their new imperial city
here,
Leaders usually build new cities in strategic locations,
Why did they build persepolis seemingly in the middle of nowhere on a desert mountain,
A mysterious labyrinth of winding tunnels hidden beneath the palaces of persepolis
may provide the answer,
And what can hidden treasure in his vast palace reveal about how king Darius controls
his massive empire,
Persepolis
in modern day Iran,
Administrative capital to the ancient persian empire,
But it's built in a brutal arid landscape
halfway up a mountain,
Why did the persians choose to build their glorious capital here,
A clue lies buried beneath the palace complex,
A web of tunnels spreads two miles under the terrace,
In one of them,
Archaeologists discover over a dozen skeletons,
Possible victims of a bloody conflict,
Unceremoniously dumped here,
Over two centuries after persepolis is built,
But this tunnel system is too large to be a tomb,
Deep shafts connect the tunnels to the surface at strategic locations,
What is this network hidden under the royal palaces,
Can they help explain why the persians carved their capital into the rocks,
Ali asai investigates,
We have these centers,
Load
all of the
palaces and courtyards,
The tunnels are a remarkable feat of ancient engineering,
As high as twenty feet in places,
The greatness of the channels surprised me,
Some of the walls are carved roughly into the terrace foundations,
But Ali discovers that many sections are built up from the ground,
Some parts are made
with big blocks of stones,
These stones are jointly very well with each other,
This is clear evidence that the tunnels are
constructed before the palace complex above,
Ali believes the well thought out design of the underground network provides clues to
it's purpose,
There are some small vertical souths
in the
key areas on the tracks
and there are gentle gradient inside of the tunnels,
All of these indicates,
That the principal is the tunnels,
Were used as underground waterways,
The design and layout of the structure suggest the underground tunnels are part of an
elaborate water management system at persepolis,
The tunnel system of persepolis is designed
to catch and during the wastewater,
This is one of the most advanced water technologies in the ancient fort,
The water tunnels could help explain why the persians build their new city here,
A good source of water must be nearby,
Where is it,
Persepolis is built at the feet of the zagros mountain range,
Ali investigates the rocky surface of the slope,
These mountains are from limestones if five power stone which,
Water could penetrate inside,
Rainwater seeps into the poorest stone of the mountain
and comes out in Springs that flow across the slope,
These Springs may,
Be one of the factors or choose this place for making the persepolis,
Terrasse,
Persepolis this location is the perfect place to catch all this water,
Engineers build the city into the mountain
near these natural Springs
so there is a constant supply of water throughout the year,
They construct subterranean tunnels to transport runoff water to underground storage
tanks,
The persian skill and water engineering allows them to create an oasis in the desert,
Twenty five hundred years ago,
Exotic plants populate the city's lavish gardens
called
pardus,
Gen of the word paradise,
The green spaces extend beyond the city walls,
Further down the mountain the persians plant olive and walnut trees,
Beyond
settlements and lush farmlands stretch as far as the eye can see,
Against all odds
the persians appear to conquer nature,
How do they spread water across the vast landscape to create their green paradise,
Ali heads to pesa gardy,
Twenty five miles north of persepolis to investigate,
This is the first persian capital
built a few generations earlier,
Are we seeing
that all of the area inside the posada and the
landscape of this area are
very green quite differently today,
At the ancient site,
Ali examines an intriguing set of limestone channels,
There are,
Means to buy lady,
Good,
Carved stones
and
each fifteen meter
there are small pools,
The channels have small basins every fifty feet
and carry water to all corners of the city,
The same infrastructure is used in persepolis
but on a much larger scale,
New geophysical surveys unveil a series of canals,
Designed to funnel water from the mountains
to the persian capital,
Some of them are over twelve miles long,
Near the ruins of persepolis
traces of lines criss crossed the landscape,
These are the remnants of a huge the irrigation network across the plains,
The persians developed an ingenious system,
Harnessing the power of gravity to transport water across vast distances,
The persian king Darius builds a city that defies nature,
It stands in the middle of a mountainous desert
but is as verdant as a Savannah,
Visitors to persepolis behold and triumph over nature,
A symbol of power more potent than the city's ramparts,
We can imagine that for foreigner,
Who,
Expected
to see a dry country,
Was rarely less punishing an amazing,
When they saw Greenland land nd everywhere,
King Darius wants to constantly remind the world of the might of his empire and his
overarching power,
What can hidden treasure in his vast palace reveal about king Darius his mighty
propaganda machine,
And can new discoveries unearthed at persepolis provide clues to the downfall of the
world's first great empire,
Persepolis,
A marvel of ancient engineering,
And a symbol of the incredible power of king Darius the great,
The closer you got to
came
into his pocket palaces
the more aware you're made of how powerful the kids,
How does he spread his message of supreme power across the empire,
Inside his magnificent palace archaeologists make an intriguing discovery,
In one corner of the ap Donna palace
investigators unearth a treasure hoard,
Stone boxes containing tablets made from solid silver and gold,
They are inscribed with Darius his name,
And tell of the scale of his great empire,
Beneath them
more treasure,
Gold coins stamped with a lion and a bull,
The insignia of Lydia,
A kingdom within the persian empire,
They are some of the first coins ever created,
How does Darius use this invention to control his vast empire,
Sophie downes believes clues may lie in the ancient lydian city
of sardis,
On the edge of the city
Sophie finds traces of ancient gold working,
Where you can see here is a burn level,
So this seems to be a furnace,
Which was used to refine the gold,
Here in sardis
the lydian people develop an invention that revolutionizes the world,
The lydians were the first entities coinage,
And they would made it from the metal that they find found right here,
The persians conquered Lydia and adopt their revolutionary coinage,
Lydian gold coins are used in persepolis and throughout the empire,
Soon
the persians meant coins of their own,
He's made out of pure gold they're called derricks
these were minted for the first time under king Darius,
The image on them on the front
is of the king,
The king is an Archer
and he's running forwards across the coin,
And so very energetically attacking
the world to his credit,
Darius stam mps military imagery on his royal gold coin,
Sophie believes this decision is clever politics
these were used to pay mercenaries in his army
having an image of Darius on the coin creates a direct connection between the
soldiers and area's
soldiers note that this is who is paying them and who is giving
them orders,
Darius uses the coins as propaganda
ensuring his army's loyalty,
The military imagery also keeps the empire afraid and obedient,
But his successors go even further,
Sophie investigates another coin called a tear it,
That calls tariffs because
on the front of the coin there's the head of a figure
wearing a tiara which is a band
of cloth which
persian soldiers wore around their heads in battles so again this is a military image
it's definitely thought this as the head
of the persian king,
This coin is used beyond the board owners of the empire into Greece,
But Greek coins usually depict gods
rather than kings,
So on this coin the head of the fashion king is occupying the same space that
some Greek coins is occupied by the head of a daddy
it's possible that there's some kind of equivalence intended,
The king of kings places himself in the position of a gun
and pushes this image into the hands of his distant neighbors,
Why does he want the Greeks in particular to receive this message,
The Russians have a
pretty fraught relationship with the Greek city states,
In five forty five bc,
Cyrus the great conquers the Greek region of ionia,
Giving him vital access to the gnc,
But fifty years later the Greeks rebel,
They attack sardis
and burn it to the ground,
The persians under Darius invade Greece,
After a thirteen year struggle
they take Athens and raise it in revenge,
But within days the Greeks trounced the persian
fleet in the nearby straits of solomons,
Marking a turning point in the decades long war,
The Greek city states are persia as greatest enemy,
So the persian kings used coinage to show them their extraordinary reach and power,
What consequences does this enduring rivalry have for persepolis,
New discoveries unearthed beneath the lost city,
May help explain the fall of the greatest empire of the ancient world,
From the mighty capital of persepolis,
The persian kings rule over most of the known ancient world,
Their power over the empire is absolut,
So they don't even fortify the perimeter of this magnificent city,
But that leaves it exposed,
What happens to persepolis,
Ali investigates the remains of the great city,
Limestones in persepolis are grey,
And when they are wide,
It means that some things
happened,
The reason of
these discoloration
could be high temperature,
Or saviour fire,
Ali finds the same discolorations across the city,
This is shocking evidence that persepolis suffers a devastating fire,
So as charcoal is on collapses songs,
Are almost everywhere seen in persepolis
embarrassed all of the city,
In the tunnels beneath the palace complex
Ali and his team unearthed further evidence of a brutal attack on the city,
In the southern channel of the treasury
he discovers a huge deposit of ash and charcoal
up to two feet thick,
And the remains of former residents of persepolis,
Seen here for the first time,
One of these calls we think long in the same time
that persepolis was catching fire,
We think maybe
this individual it tried to hide inside of the tunnels
but ah,
It couldn't survive,
Experts are yet to forensically examine the
skeletons and determine how the people died,
But the evidence suggests the skulls date to the downfall of the great city,
According to the psychographic of excavation we think,
It was immediately or shortly after
attack
to persepolis,
Persepolis
the once mighty and untouchable city
is attacked,
The persians failed to defend their capital
and it is burned to the ground,
Who leads this audacious assault,
It is Alexander the great,
The mighty Greek king
who topples the magnificent persian capital,
In the fourth century bc Alexander rampages across the persian empire,
Starting out from Macedonia,
He conquers anatolia,
Egypt
and mesopotamia,
All the while heading to persepolis,
He uses Darius his royal road to march his vast army across the desert,
And attacks the great city,
Persepolis falls and only a few days,
Alexander burns it to the ground as payback for the persians burning of Athens,
The persian empire that rules over most of the known world for over two hundred years
is incorporated into Alexander the great's new imperial powerhouse,
But Alexander follows in the steps of the
astounding achievements of the ancient persians,
Alexander is only able to achieve
his very brief empire
because he's taking over
persian empire,
And this whole idea of creating empires such large-scale does kabaddi to
fashions,
The persians conquer are most of the known ancient world,
Ruling over twenty three nations across two million square miles,
They absorb their wealth and knowledge,
To create their mighty capital persepolis,
A majestic city richer than any other,
It's magnificent palaces stand toe to toe with the wonders of the ancient world,
With cutting edge technology
and remarkable feats of engineering,
The persian kings create a lush paradise in the desert,
And populated
with a highly sophisticated multicultural society,
Uh leaving behind a legacy
of how to rule the ancient world,
Uh uh,