TEHRAN -- A team of archaeologists is currently searching for traces of Byzantine emperor Heraclius (ruled 610-641) at the Sassanid Khosrow Palace near the city of Qasr-e Shirin in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah, the Persian service of CHN reported on Monday.

Khosrow II (reigned 590-628) began a long war against the Byzantine Empire in 602 and by 619 had conquered almost all southwestern Asia Minor and Egypt.

Further expansion was prevented by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, who between 622 and 627 drove the Persians back within their original borders. Many experts believe that the Khosrow Palace had been sacked and pillaged by Heraclius.

The team is conducting the survey to determine if the theory is true, project director Yusef Moradi said.

The region was excavated by French archeologist and prehistorian Jacques de Morgan in the late nineteenth century, British archaeologist and writer Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell in 1910 and 1911, and then by Oscar Reuter. Each one prepared architectural plans of the Khosrow Palace, but none of the plans is reliable so the archaeological team also plans to study the architecture of the castle, he added.

The archaeological team working at the site recently discovered a wall surrounding the palace about 40 kilometers long, which they believe was used as a defensive device for the palace.

Covering an area of 75,000 square meters, the palace was built by the Sassanid king Khosrow II for his Armenian Christian wife Shirin. Some Iranian and Arab geographers and historians of the early Islamic era called the palace one of the wonders of the world.