The staircase at Persepolis is a lesson in how an empire wanted to be seen. Darius I began the terrace in about 518 BC, and his successors added to it for nearly two centuries, building a great ceremonial capital on a platform at the foot of the Mountain of Mercy. Visitors from across the empire climbed the broad, shallow steps to the Gate of All Nations, flanked by huge stone bulls with human heads, and the reliefs of the Apadana, the great audience hall, show delegations from twenty-three subject peoples bringing gifts, Medes, Egyptians, Ethiopians and Indians among them, in a long procession that is still crisp after twenty-five centuries. In 330 BC Alexander the Great captured the city and burned the palace, and the ruined columns that stand today are the remains of that fire.
The scale is what stays with you. The columns of the Apadana were nearly twenty metres high, and they held a cedar roof, and the stone terrace is the size of a small town. Nearby, at Naqsh-e Rostam, the tombs of Darius and his successors are cut into a cliff in the shape of a cross, with Sasanian reliefs below. The site is in the Marvdasht plain, a broad, fertile basin with wheat fields and orchards, with low ridges of pale rock on either side.
Persepolis was listed by UNESCO in 1979, one of the first sites on the list. The best light is in the early morning and late afternoon, when the stone turns golden, and the heat is moderate. Midday in summer is fierce.
The roads of Fars are long and straight across the plains and twist in the hills, with a good surface on the main routes. Traffic is heavy near Shiraz, which has the Bagh-e Eram garden and the tomb of Hafez, and drivers are fast and assertive. Check the rules for foreign visitors and vehicles before you plan. Marvdasht, about ten kilometres from the site, has fuel, shops and restaurants. Spring and autumn are the best seasons.