TEHRAN – Visitors to the UNESCO-registered Pasargadae will soon find a special walkway that connects the tomb of Cyrus the Great to a nearby caravanserai, the director of the World Heritage site has said.

“At this stage, a path with a width of approximately two and a half meters will be constructed from the entrance of the [majestic] mausoleum to the entrance of Mozaffari Caravansary,” Afshin Ebrahimi explained.

“Moreover, we plan to make a concrete flooring to connect the caravanserai to the current asphalt road.”

It is interesting to know that wall stones of the caravanserai have been taken from the remains of Pasargadae. The caravansary has a courtyard area of 208 square meters in front of it with large and small rooms for travelers.

Situated about 50 km north of Persepolis, Pasargadae was the first dynastic capital of the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus II the Great, in Pars, the homeland of the Persians, in the 6th century BC.

Its palaces, gardens, and the mausoleum of Cyrus are outstanding examples of the first phase of royal Achaemenid art and architecture and exceptional testimonies of Persian civilization.

The UNESCO World Heritage site is also home to a complex water supply system for the time that comprises cisterns, tunnels, underground canals, and ducts, which are locally known as qanats.

Pasargadae became a prototype for the Persian Garden concept of four quadrants formally divided by waterways or pathways, its architecture characterized by refined details and slender verticality.

The offer as an exceptional witness to the Achaemenid Achaemenid Empire, which extended from the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt to the Hindus River in India, is considered the first empire to be characterized by a respect for cultural diversity of its peoples.

Pasargadae represents the first phase of this development into a specifically Persian architecture which later found its full expression in the city of Persepolis.

AFM