PERSIAN RUINS

1 SUSA

SHUSH, KHUZESTAN PROVINCE

This ancient city of the Achaemenid Empire, located in the region of the Zagros Mountains, was founded c.4200 BCE and is one of the oldest cities in the world, although there is also evidence that suggests that there was a community living there as far back as c.7000 BCE. The favourite capital of Darius I, it was eventually abandoned in 1218 and later excavated by French archaeologists at the end of the 19th century. Although many of the objects found at Susa are now housed at the Louvre in France or at the Archaeological Museum