CChronica Maps

Persepolis: Then and Now

Ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid kings, begun by Darius I around 518 BC and burned by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

As it was
Persepolis, as it was
Reconstruction of the Apadana by Charles Chipiez. Charles Chipiez, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The ruins today
Persepolis, the ruins today
Laurens R. Krol, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Key facts

Country todayIran
StatusRuins
Date518 BC
Nearest city on the mapShiraz (about 50 km)
Location29.935° N, 52.892° E
Map showing Persepolis in 500 BCPersepolis
Border map for 500 BC. See the world in 500 BC.

Open Persepolis in the interactive map

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Who ruled this place

Derived from the border maps; each row runs until the next recorded border change.

PeriodState
500 BC–324 BCAchaemenid Empire
323 BC–301 BCEmpire of Alexander
300 BC–2 BCSeleucid Kingdom
1 BC–399Parthian Empire
400–499Persia
500–699Sasanian Empire
700–799Umayyad Caliphate
800–899Abbasid Caliphate
900–999Saffarids
1000–1099Buwayhid Emirates
1100–1199Seljuk Empire
1200–1299Khwarazmian Empire
1300–1399Ilkhanate
1400–1491Timurid Empire
1492–1599Emirate of the White Sheep Turks
1600–1782Safavid Empire
1783–1919Persia
1920–todayIran

Other landmarks nearby

More: Historic landmarks of Iran · All landmarks

Further reading

Last updated 9 November 2026. Sources: border data from historical-basemaps, land and rivers from Natural Earth; texts written for Chronica Maps from standard reference works. How we make the maps.