Susa

History: Susa

Susa, beneath and beside the modern town of Shush in Khuzestan, was one of the most important cities of the ancient Near East. Settled from about 4200 BC, it was the capital of Elam, and under the Persian kings it became one of the four capitals of the Achaemenid Empire and its winter residence. Darius the Great built a great palace here, with a hypostyle audience hall, the Apadana, of thirty-six columns.

The Hebrew Bible calls the city Shushan. The Book of Esther is set there, at the court of King Ahasuerus (Esther 1:2); Nehemiah was "in Shushan the palace" when he heard news of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:1); and Daniel places one of his visions there (Daniel 8:2). The tomb venerated as Daniel's stands nearby in Shush.

An interesting detail

An inscription of Darius describes the building of his palace here: "This palace which I built at Susa, from afar its ornamentation was brought."