Susa is among the oldest cities on earth, and one of the most layered. Elamite kings ruled from here from the fourth millennium BC, and later the Persian emperor Darius the Great made it a winter capital of the Achaemenid empire, building a vast palace with a columned hall, the Apadana, with glazed brick friezes of archers and lions. The palace was famous in antiquity, and the Book of Esther in the Bible is set here, in the royal citadel of Shushan. The archaeological mound rises beside the modern town of Shush in Khuzestan, in the hot lowlands at the foot of the Zagros mountains.
French archaeologists dug here from the late nineteenth century, and a castle-like expedition house built by them still crowns the mound. Among their finds was the black stele inscribed with the law code of Hammurabi, carried off as spoils of war by an Elamite king and now in the Louvre, along with the glazed brick friezes. A short walk away is the tomb of Daniel, a white-coned shrine beside the Shavur river that is a place of pilgrimage for Muslims, Jews and Christians. About forty kilometres south-east lies Chogha Zanbil, an Elamite ziggurat that is also on the World Heritage list.
The country is flat, fertile and hot, with irrigated fields of wheat, cotton and sugar cane. The road into Shush from Ahvaz or Dezful is straight and busy with trucks, and speeds are moderate. Summer temperatures often pass forty-five degrees, with a heavy, humid wind, and the only sensible time to visit is the winter half of the year, when days are warm and pleasant. Spring brings green fields and wildflowers.
Shush has some fifty thousand people and has everything you need, including fuel and restaurants serving grilled fish and kebab. Dezful, to the north, is a larger city with a Sassanid bridge. Wear a hat, carry water and walk the mound in the morning, when the light is soft and the brick is warm.