Persepolis Museum

🕰️When was it built?

The original building is part of the Achaemenid palaces and is about 2,500 years old. After it was rebuilt, it was given over to the museum. The museum opened on 18 May 2002, International Museum Day.

🏛️What was it built for?

The museum keeps and displays finds from Persepolis. The collection is not only statues and inscriptions; it also includes tools, vessels, weapons, jewellery and clay tablets. These objects show different sides of life and work in the Achaemenid era.

👀What you will see

• Two single-piece stone piers stand on either side of the portico entrance, each about 8 metres tall.
• The portico roof rests on eight wooden columns with double-bull capitals, and the grey stone column bases are original.
• Clay tablets in Elamite script and an inscription from the palace of Xerxes are among the museum's written finds.
• An unfinished statue of a seated dog and the broken figures of two bulls are among the stone objects in the collection.
• Stone vessels, spearheads and arrowheads are on display beside gold and silver jewellery.

💡Something interesting

In 1958 eight plain eye beads were found at Persepolis. They were all different sizes, in yellow, black and light and dark brown. Beads from the Achaemenid era are among the objects in this museum.

🎒Good to know before you go