Bishabour, a City in the Heart of History
January 20, 1999 - 0:0
The ruins of the historical city of Bishabour are found on the slope of Koohmareh heights, 23 kilometers west of the city of Kazeroon. Bishabour was built on the side of the ancient Imperial Road, which was once one of the country's most strategic roads. During the Achaemenid period, the Imperial Road connected Persepolis and Estakhr to the ancient city of Shush. During the Sassanid Period, this road connected the cities of Firouzabad and Bishabour to Tisfoon, the then capital of the Sassanid Dynasty. In addition to enjoying military and strategic significance, this road was also an important trade route.
The city was later called Antiuk Shapour, meaning more beautiful than Antakieh, in Asia Minor, and this was due to its location in the beautiful Shapour plain, in the green and narcissus-spotted Kazeroon plain with Cheshmeh Sassan River crossing it. In addition to all these natural features, the city's architecture borrowed designs and motifs from other civilizations of that era. Bishabour matched the most beautiful and richest cities of the then civilized world like Antakieh (Antioch), the bride of all cities in Byzantium. Due to unfinished excavation, there is no complete knowledge about the city structure; however, studies of the monuments discovered so far like the tower and rampart of the city castle, reception halls, porches carpeted with brick tiles in the eastern and western sides of the hall, as well as buildings in the unique Anahita Temple all indicate that, at the beginning, the Sassanid culture was influenced by the previous culture and followed the art of the Achaemenid Period. Although the Sassanids failed to reach high levels of technical expertise in city planning, they well rivaled their predecessors, the Achaemenids, in stonework, especially in producing embossed three-dimensional shapes.
On the sides of the southern hall, there are two doorways, one overlooking the western hall and the other overlooking the eastern hall, exclusively built for people to watch the flow of water. The water distributing canals were precisely designed and built to facilitate the flow of equal amounts of water in each of the waterways. The great Bishabour Temple, which was unearthed following scientific studies and archaeological excavations, was built as a place for worshiping and praising water, one of the basic elements attributed to Nahid, the goddess and guardian of water.
The city was later called Antiuk Shapour, meaning more beautiful than Antakieh, in Asia Minor, and this was due to its location in the beautiful Shapour plain, in the green and narcissus-spotted Kazeroon plain with Cheshmeh Sassan River crossing it. In addition to all these natural features, the city's architecture borrowed designs and motifs from other civilizations of that era. Bishabour matched the most beautiful and richest cities of the then civilized world like Antakieh (Antioch), the bride of all cities in Byzantium. Due to unfinished excavation, there is no complete knowledge about the city structure; however, studies of the monuments discovered so far like the tower and rampart of the city castle, reception halls, porches carpeted with brick tiles in the eastern and western sides of the hall, as well as buildings in the unique Anahita Temple all indicate that, at the beginning, the Sassanid culture was influenced by the previous culture and followed the art of the Achaemenid Period. Although the Sassanids failed to reach high levels of technical expertise in city planning, they well rivaled their predecessors, the Achaemenids, in stonework, especially in producing embossed three-dimensional shapes.
On the sides of the southern hall, there are two doorways, one overlooking the western hall and the other overlooking the eastern hall, exclusively built for people to watch the flow of water. The water distributing canals were precisely designed and built to facilitate the flow of equal amounts of water in each of the waterways. The great Bishabour Temple, which was unearthed following scientific studies and archaeological excavations, was built as a place for worshiping and praising water, one of the basic elements attributed to Nahid, the goddess and guardian of water.