The Hadish or "The Palace of Xerxes "

The palace which Xerxes built as his private residence on the terrace is twice the size of the Tachara of Darius, and is usually called the Hadish because it is so called in one of its inscriptions. It stood on a platform hewn from the natural bedrock 18m higher than the level of the plain and was ascended by four staircases: one from the Tachara courtyard, another from the court south of the Tripylon, and the remaining two from the west wing of the Harem.

These last pair led up into a balcony which covered the entire southern part of the Hadish and overlooked the plain. Four-stepped crenellations decorated the southern edge of the balcony, but only fragments of them have survived.

 The essential feature of the Hadish was a main square hall (36.5x36.5m), provided with thirty-six columns (6x6 rows), five doorways, nineteen windows, and four niches. The windows and niches were hewn from monoliths. The doorways linked the hall to adjacent sections: two led in from a twelve-columned portico on the north; one led in from the southern balcony; and the last two opened into western and eastern apartments, each of which consisted of a four-columned hall, storage and guardrooms, and a tower. An efficient underground drainage system prevented flooding: rainwater was led into vertical shafts dug inside the pillars and walls, and then into the underground channels which ended in the plain.

 The doorjambs of the main hall are sculptured with the representation of Xerxes leaving or entering the hall. In each case he is accompanied by two attendants who are depicted on a much smaller scale than the king; one is the holder of the royal parasol, and the other is either the towel-bearer or the holder of the king’s fly-whisk. Xerxes is depicted as wearing a tall cylindrical crown which lacks any crenellation. In his right hand he holds the scepter of sovereignty, and with his left hand he grasps the lotus symbol. 

World heritage documents

Persepolis
Pasargadae

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