| Tomb of Cyrus | |
|---|---|
| Mausoleum of Cyrus the Great[1] | |
 | |
| Location | Pasargadae, Fars Province, Iran |
| Built | 6th century BC |
| Built for | Cyrus the Great |
| Original use | Mausoleum |
| Restored | 1958, 1970, 2006 |
| Restored by | Italian Institute for Middle and Far East (1970) |
| Architectural style(s) | Achaemenid |
| Official name | Pasargadae |
| Designated | 2004 (28th session) |
| Reference no. | 1106 |
The Tomb of Cyrus (Persian: آرامگاه کوروش بزرگ, Ārāmgāh-e Kūrosh-e Bozorg) is the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Constructed in the 6th century BC, it is located approximately 1 km (0.62 mi) southwest of the palaces of Pasargadae, in Iran's Fars Province.
Overview edit
The Mausoleum of Cyrus the Great was constructed in the sixth century bc and is the only intact monument of the Achaemenid period at the World Heritage site of Pasargadae.[2]
The structure of the mausoleum combines two distinctive elements: a high plinth composed of six receding tiers and a gabled chamber. The mausoleum was constructed of local limestone extracted from the Sivand quarry some 30 km from Pasargadae. The stone blocks were originally held together by lead joints without the use of mortar. However, these lead joints are now missing in most parts of the mausoleum due to either vandalism or degradation. The total height of the mausoleum is 11 m and its base measures approximately 13.35 m by 12.30 m.[3]
The identification of the stone structure, consisting of a gabled cella on a stepped plinth, on the Morḡāb plain as the tomb of Cyrus is based on its resemblance to the descriptions of Arrian and Strabo (plate liii). The building, which was incorporated into a mosque by the Salghurid Saʿd b. Zangī (601-28/1203-31; Melikian-Chirvani, pp. 3-4), is known locally as Mašhad-e Mādar-e Solaymān (the tomb of the mother of Solomon).[4]
The tomb is simple in form (Stronach, 1978, pp. 26-39, pls. 19-39), constructed of large, carefully dressed ashlar blocks set with precision and secured by “dovetail” clamps (see construction materials and techniques). The estimated total height (including the missing capstone of the pitched roof) is ca. 11.10 m. The base of the plinth, which rises in six receding tiers, covers an area 13.35 x 12.30 m. Whereas each of the three upper tiers is 0.57 m high, each of the lower ones is 1.05 m high; at present, however, the lowest seems taller because part of the foundation is exposed. The base of the cella measures 6.40 x 5.35 m. On the northwest side a narrow doorway, 1.39 m high without the sill and 0.78 m wide, leads through a small passage to a chamber ca. 3.17 x 2.11 m, which is enclosed by walls 1.50 m thick. Originally the side walls of the chamber were bare, except for a narrow, rounded corniceat the top of the wall just below the level of the ceiling. A meḥrāb (Islamic prayer niche) on the southwest wall of the chamber and a “compass” carved on the southern corner of the plinth bear witness to the use of the monument as a mosque in medieval times, The gabled stone roof is hollow.[4]
559-29 B.C.E.[4]
Architecture edit
The monument as a whole measures about 13¾ x 12¼ meters and is about eleven meters high. The lower part is platform, about five meters high, which vaguely reminds one of a ziggurat from Mesopotamia. Other scholars see parallels with the monuments in Urartu, which Cyrus had conquered in 547, and point at a similar tomb at Çavustepe. It is also possible that the architect was inspired by structures from Lycia and Phrygia, which the Persians had conquered after 547, when Cyrus defeated king Croesus of Lydia.[5]
The upper part consists of two chambers: one is the real tomb, a square room, and the other is an attic. The function of this second room is unknown. Hardly visible is a rayed disk, some 50 cm in diameter, on the gable above the door. The significance is unknown.[5]
The tomb chamber itself is two meters wide, two meters high, and three meters deep. It once contained a gold sarcophagus, Cyrus' arms, his jewelry, and a cloak. This garment played an important role in the Persian inauguration rituals.note[Cf. Plutarch of Chaeronea, Life of Artaxerxes 3.1.] That the robe of a former king conveyed legitimacy, is also known from Hellenistic Babylonia.[5]
Since the thirteenth century, the tomb was surrounded by a square portico, which converted it into a mosque, which was called the Qabr-e Madar-e Solaiman, or "mosque of the mother of Solomon". The stones of this portico had been taken from Palace P. This building had already collapsed when archaeological investigations started, and many stones had already been reused in a caravanserai close to the tomb.[5]
Influence edit
A similar monument, called Gur-e Dokhtar, is to be seen near Buzpar. This type of tomb may have influenced the so-called "Tomb of Hiram" in Tyre.[5]
In Greek sources edit
According to a lost account by Aristobulus, who had accompanied Alexander the Great on his eastern campaign (4th century BC), found in the Anabasis of Arrian (2nd century AD):[4]
the tomb ... in the lower parts was built of stones cut square and was rectangular in form. Above, there was a stone chamber with a roof and a door leading into it so narrow that it was hard and caused much distress for a single man of low stature to get through. In the chamber lay a golden sarcophagus, in which Cyrus’ body had been buried; a couch stood by its side with feet of wrought gold; a Babylonian tapestry served as a coverlet and purple rugs as a carpet. There was placed on it a sleeved mantle and other garments of Babylonian workmanship .... Median trousers and robes dyed blue lay there, some dark, some of other varying shades, with necklaces, scimitars, and earrings of stones set in gold, and a table stood there. It was between the table and the couch that the sarcophagus containing Cyrus’ body was placed. Within the enclosure and by the ascent to the tomb itself there was a small building put up for the Magians who used to guard Cyrus’ tomb.
The 1st century BC historian Strabo wrote in Geographica:[6]
...in a park, the tomb of Cyrus; it was a small tower and was concealed within the dense growth of trees. The tomb was solid below, but had a roof and sepulchre above, which latter had an extremely narrow entrance. Aristobulus says that at the behest of the king he passed through this entrance and decorated the tomb; and that he saw a golden couch, a table with cups, a golden coffin, and numerous garments and ornaments set with precious stones; and that he saw all these things on his first visit, but that on a later visit the place had been robbed and everything had been carried off except the couch and the coffin, which had only been broken to pieces, and that the robbers had removed the corpse to another place, a fact which plainly proved that it was an act of plunderers, not of the satrap, since they left behind only what could not easily be carried off; and that the robbery took place even though the tomb was surrounded by a guard of Magi, who received for their maintenance a sheep every day and a horse every month. But just as the remoteness of the countries to which Alexander's army advanced, Bactra and India, had led to numerous other revolutionary acts, so too this was one of the revolutionary acts. Now Aristobulus so states it, and he goes to record the following inscription on the tomb: "O man, I am Cyrus, who acquired the empire for the Persians and was king of Asia; grudge me not, therefore, my monument." Onesicritus, however, states that the tower had ten stories and that Cyrus lay in the uppermost story, and that there was one inscription in Greek, carved in Persian letters, "Here I lie, Cyrus, king of kings," and another written in the Persian language with the same meaning.
The inscription mentioned in these Greek sources has not been found. The absence of the epitaph has been explained.[4]
Rediscovery edit
Ernst Herzfeld arrived in 1928 to begin mapping and photographing the city. He was the world's first professor of middle east archeaology. Herzfeld determined that the tomb was that of Cyrus
It is true that some years earlier G. N. Curzon had compared Arrian’s description, following Aristobulus, of the tomb of Cyrus (Anabasis 6.29) with the upstanding remains of a stone tomb in the Dašt-e Morḡāb in northern Fārs that was known locally as Taḵt-e Mādar-e Soleymān “Tomb of the Mother of Solomon” and had come to the conclusion that the latter monument could be none other than the tomb of Cyrus (Curzon, 1892, p. 82). But as Herzfeld was well aware, neither this identification, nor Curzon’s further, agreeable supposition that the ruins in the Dašt-e Morḡāb were those of Pasargadae, was uniformly accepted.
the tomb of Cyrus—a monument recently characterized as one “executed in techniques” that were “essentially not eastern, but Lydo-Ionian, and with features of Greek Ionic architecture” (Boardman, 2000, p. 60).
Conservation edit
Rafiee Fanood, M., & Saradj, F. M. (2013). Learning from the Past and Planning for the Future: Conditions and Proposals for Stone Conservation of the Mausoleum of Cyrus the Great in the World Heritage Site of Pasargadae. International Journal of Architectural Heritage, 7(4), 434-460.
Apart from conservation interventions during the Achaemenid period, there have been three known phases of intervention in modern times. In 1958, some irreversible work was carried out, including the application of cement to restore damaged and missing parts of the roof and the plinth. The application of cement was particularly unfortunate because of its aesthetic and physical incompatibility with limestone, which resulted in cracking of the original limestone and loss of fragments.[3]
In 1970 the Italian Institute for Middle and Far East (ISMEO) was responsible for the conservation and restoration of the monument. At this stage, twelve large blocks of stone were placed in the missing parts of the plinth and stone was used to fill the gaps between the stone blocks where the lead joints used to be. Due to the haste made to get the work finished in time for the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Kingdom, the materials used were not compatible with the original stones and have caused degradation which can be clearly observed today.[10]
In 2006, restoration work was carried out on the roof of the monument due to the degradation of cement mortars. All the cement used in the previous restoration was removed and replaced by stones extracted from the Sivand quarry.[11]
sources edit
Pasargadae's most famous monument.[5]
approximately 1 km southwest of the palaces of Pasargadae, in the center of the Morḡāb plain[4]
References edit
- ^ Fanood 2012.
- ^ Fanood 2012, p. 53.
- ^ a b Fanood 2012, p. 54.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Zournatzi, Antigoni (15 December 1993). "The Tomb of Cyrus". Encyclopædia Iranica.
- ^ a b c d e f Lendering, Jona (2004). "Pasargadae, Tomb of Cyrus". livius.org.
- ^ http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/15C*.html
- ^ "Tomb of Cyrus Found by German Scientist; Professor Herzfeld Identifies It in Pasargadae, Ancient Capital of Persia". The New York Times. 23 September 1928.
- ^ Landers, Jackson (16 February 2016). "How a German Archaeologist Rediscovered in Iran the Tomb of Cyrus". Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institution.
- ^ Stronach, David (15 December 2003). "Herzfeld, Ernst ii. Herzfeld and Pasargadae". Encyclopædia Iranica.
- ^ Fanood 2012, pp. 54–55.
- ^ Fanood 2012, p. 55.
- bibliography
- Fanood, Maryam Rafiee (2012). "The Debate on the Need for a Protective Shelter over the Mausoleum of Cyrus the Great". Journal of Architectural Conservation. 18 (3). Taylor & Francis: 53–70. doi:10.1080/13556207.2012.10785118.