Bible Synapse
Persepolis and the inscriptions of Xerxes
Site · 486–465 BC · Persian period · also called Persepolis, Gate of All Nations, Gate of Xerxes
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- 486–465 BC (Xerxes’ building work and inscriptions at the site (his reign))
- Found
- Persepolis, Marvdasht, Fars Province, Iran. The ruins have always stood above ground. Systematic digging began in the 1930s, when Ernst Herzfeld and then Erich Schmidt led the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago’s expedition to the site.
- Now
- At the site, Marvdasht, Iran
- Passages
- Esther 1:1–3, Ezra 4:6
What it is
The ceremonial capital of the Persian kings, founded by Darius I in about 518 BC on a vast stone terrace and extended by his son Xerxes and later kings until Alexander the Great burned it in 330 BC. Xerxes built the Gate of All Nations, guarded by colossal stone bulls, two of them with bearded human heads, and completed halls begun by his father. His inscription on the gate, in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian, says that he built it by the favour of the god Ahuramazda.
How it connects to the Bible
The Persian name Xšayāršā, which the Greeks wrote as Xerxes, is the name the Hebrew Bible writes as Ahasuerus. Ezra 4:6 places Ahasuerus between Darius and Artaxerxes, the right order for Xerxes, and the book of Esther sets its story at the court of Ahasuerus, who “reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia”. Persepolis shows the scale and style of the Persian royal court, though Esther’s story itself takes place at Shushan (Susa).
What scholars debate
Many historians regard Esther as a story set at the Persian court rather than a record of events; its events are not mentioned in Persian sources.