Palace of Darius (Apadana) in Shush (Susa)

Other names of this construction, which is made of stones, cedarwood, and clay bricks, are the Palace of Darius and the Palace of Susa. The walls of this palace are made of clay with a brick facade and its columns are made of stone. Its inner walls were covered with glazed bricks and designed with images of soldiers of the Eternal Guard, a winged lion, and a lotus flower.

Built on an artificially raised platform 15 meters (49 ft.) high, covering 100 hectares, this palace consists of numerous parts such as a residential palace, an apadana (audience hall), a harem, a banquet hall, a monumental gate, and more than 110 rooms, and six courtyards (three central courtyards), which have been covered with red color bricks.

Some important parts of this palace were destroyed by fire during the reign of Ardeshir I (461 BC) and was partially restored during the time of Ardeshir II (359 BC). Like other Achaemenid palaces, this palace, too, was eventually and completely destroyed in the course of Alexander’s invasion of Iran and very little has remained from this important complex. Some of the remains of the palace include columns and capitals, the winged lion, a gold and turquoise necklace and bracelet, some pottery and glazed vessels, etc., all of which are kept in domestic and foreign museums, such as the Louvre in Paris. This complex was inscribed in the list of UNESCO World Heritage in the year 2015.