According to inscriptions discovered in the ruins, the palace was built by the Persian kings Darius and Artaxerxes. According to the book of Esther, Shushan once had a magnificent palace which included a great hall formed from magnificent columns and a highly impressive frontage. The city was also associated with Daniel’s vision of a ram and a goat in the third year of Belshazzar. Queen Esther by Edwin Long, 1878 ( Wikimedia Commons ) It is capped by an unusual white cone which some believe was formerly a stone ‘Star of David’. A tomb known as Shush-Daniel is believed to be that of Daniel himself. The city is also mentioned in Nehemiah and Daniel, both of whom lived in the city during the 6 th century BC in the period known as the Babylonian captivity when a number of Jews were held captive following the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. The episode is commemorated every year in the Jewish Purim festival which is marked with costumed parties and other celebrations. According to the story, Esther outwitted him by persuading her husband, King Ahasuerus of Persia, to sabotage Haman’s plan. In the Bible, the city is known primarily from the story of Esther in which Haman the Agagite planned to annihilate the Jews of Persia. Artifacts discovered at the site include carved cylinder seals, jewellery, clay balls and clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions recording business transactions, political history and mathematical calculations. A number of excavations of the city have revealed evidence of occupation going back to 4200 BC. It was once the winter residence of Persian kings after having been captured by Cyrus the Great. The city formerly belonged to the Elamite, Pesian and Parthian empires and was known to be a centre for the worship of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love, fertility and warfare. The name may derive from Shushana, a variety of water lily that was said to grow in lakes and swamps nearby. The ancient city was also known as Susa, the name Shushan deriving from the Persian word Shush, the Hebrew variant of which is Shushān. Shushan is located in the Lower Zagros Mountains, around 250 kilometres (160 miles) east of the Tigris river and between the Kharkeh and Dez rivers. The remains of a spectacular sculpture in Susa, Iran ( UNESCO ) As a result of the Burgundy listing, France how has 41 listed World Heritage sites. The Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain sacred landscape in Mongolia has also been added to the list along with vineyards in Burgundy and the village of Hautvilliers where a monk by the name of Dom Perignon invented the fermentation process that made champagne fizzy.
The Biblical city of Shushan, now the modern Iranian city of Shush, has been added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage List along with six other locations, including the troglodyte settlements of Maymand and the Botanical Gardens of Singapore.
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