_(14584070300).jpg)
Apadana (Old Persian:𐎠𐎱𐎠𐎭𐎴,[apəˈdänə] or[äpəˈdänə]) is a largehypostyle hall inPersepolis,Iran. It belongs to the oldest building phase of the city of Persepolis, in the first half of the 5th century BC, as part of the original design byDarius the Great. Its construction was completed byXerxes I. Modern scholarship "demonstrates the metaphorical nature of the Apadana reliefs as idealised social orders".[1]
As a word,apadāna (Old Persian𐎠𐎱𐎭𐎠𐎴, masc.) is used to designate a hypostyle hall, i.e., a palace or audience hall of stone construction with columns. The word is rendered inElamite asha-ha-da-na and inBabylonianap-pa-da-an is etymologically ambiguous. It has been compared to theSanskritāpādana (आपादन) which means 'to arrive at', and also to the Sanskritapa-dhā (अपधा) which means "a hide-out or concealment", and theGreekapo-thēkē (αποθήκη), meaning "storehouse". The word survived into later periods in Iran, as theParthian'pdn(y) or'pdnk(y) "palace", and outside Iran it still survives in several languages as loan-words (including theArabicفَدَن (transliteration:fadan) for "palace" and theArmenianaparan-kʿ for "palace".)[2]
As a modern architectural and archaeological term, the wordapadana is also used to refer toUrartian hypostyle halls, such as those excavated atAltintepe andErebuni. These halls predate those from Persia, and it has been proposed that Urartu could be the stylistic origin of the later Persian hypostyle audience halls.[3]
The Apadana Palace inSusa started construction during the reign of Darius after the overall plan was chosen in 515 BC but it was finished during the reign ofXerxes I.[4] 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 brick reliefs and featured soldiers of the Eternal Guard, a winged lion, and a lotus flower. Important parts of the Apadana Palace caught fire during the reign of Artaxerxes I (461 BC) and were rebuilt during the reign of Artaxerxes II (359 BC).[citation needed]
The Apadana was the largest building on the Terrace at Persepolis and was excavated by the German archaeologistErnst Herzfeld and his assistant Friedrich Krefter, and Erich Schmidt, between 1931 and 1939. Important material relevant to the excavations are today housed in the archives of theFreer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
The Apadana at Persepolis has a surface of 1000 square metres; its roof was supported by 72 columns, each 24 metres tall. The entire hall was destroyed in 331 BC by the army ofAlexander the Great. Stones from the columns were used asbuilding material for nearby settlements. By the start of the 20th century, only 13 of these giant columns were still standing. The re-erecting of a complete, but fallen column in the 1970s, is now the 14th standing column of the Apadana.
TheApadana in Susa was—like the city itself—largely abandoned, and pillaged for building material.
The apadana hall influenced theUmayyad architecture. Early mosques built in Persia and Iraq imitate this structure.[5]
29°56′06″N52°53′24″E / 29.935°N 52.890°E /29.935; 52.890
| Palace |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Other sections | ||
| Builders | ||
| Researchers | ||
| Related | ||
Fars province, Iran | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Counties andcities |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Landmarks |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Populated places | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
