Zoroastrian (Cessanian) Ancient Circular Cities

Dr Uday Dokras

Gor

Round cities were commonly created by ancient Iranians. Two good examples include Gor
(Firuzabad) and Veh-Ardashir, a suburb of Ctesiphon in modern-day Iraq.The design was
perfectly circular, with ibn Balkhi writing it to be "devised using a compass". It was protected by
a trench 50 meters in width, and was 2 kilometers in diameter. Later on Persian influences caught
on and baghdad was also designed on the circular lines.
The circle has been known since before the beginning of recorded history. Natural circles would
have been observed, such as the Moon, Sun, and a short plant stalk blowing in the wind on sand,
which forms a circle shape in the sand. The circle is the basis for the wheel, which, with related
inventions such as gears, makes much of modern machinery possible. In mathematics, the study
of the circle has helped inspire the development of geometry, astronomy and calculus. A circle is
a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point,
the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its
distance from a given point is constant. The city of Gor had four gates; to the north was the
Hormozd Gate, to the south the Ardashir Gate, to the east the Mithra Gate and to the west the
Wahram Gate. The royal capital's compounds were constructed at the center of a circle 450 m in
radius. At the center of the town there was a lofty platform or tower, called Terbal. It was 30 m
high and spiral in design. These designs were later incorporated into post-Islamic cities like
Samara and Baghdad.
Sasanian Zoroastrianism or (Iranian dynasty)

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Sasanian dynasty, ancient Iranin dynasty that ruled an empire (224–651 CE), rising
through Ardashīr I’s conquests in 208–224 CE and destroyed by the Arabs during the years 637–
651. The dynasty was named after Sāsān, an ancestor of Ardashīr. Unbder his leadership ( 224–
241), the Sasanians overthrew the Parthians and created an empire that was constantly changing
in size as it reacted to Rome and Byzantium to the west and to the Kushans and Hephthalites to
the east. These were the followers of the nreligion of . Zoroastrianism or Mazdayasna is
an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings
of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zo. roaster (also known as Zaraθuštra in Avestan or
as Zartosht in Persian). It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the
framework of a monotheistic ontology and an eschatology which predicts the ultimate
conquest of evil by good.[3] Zoroastrianism exalts an uncreated and benevolent deity of
wisdom known as Ahura Mazda (lit. 'Lord of Wisdom') as its supreme being. With
possible roots dating back to the 2nd millennium BCE, Zoroastrianism enters recorded
history around the middle of the 6th century BCE. It served as the state religion of
the ancient Iranian empires for more than a millennium (approximately from 600 BCE to
650 CE), but declined from the 7th century CE onwards as a direct result of the Arab-
Muslim conquest of Persia (633–654 CE), which led to the large-scale persecution of the
Zoroastrian people.[11] Recent estimates place the current number of Zoroastrians in the
world at around 110,000–120,000[12] at most, with the majority of this figure living
in India, Iran, and North America; their number has been thought to be declining.
At the time of Shāpūr I (reigned 241–272), the empire stretched from Sogdiana and Iberia
(Georgia) in the north to the Mazun region of Arabia in the south and extended to the Indus
River in the east and to the upper Tigris and Euphrates river valleys in the west.
A revival of Iranian nationalism took place under Sasanian rule. Zoroastrianism became
the state religion, and at various times followers of other faiths suffered official persecution. The
government was centralized, with provincial officials directly responsible to the throne, and
roads, city building, and even agriculture were financed by the government.
Under the Sasanians Iranian art experienced a general renaissance. Architecture often took on
grandiose proportions, such as the palaces at Ctesiphon, Fīrūzābād, and Sarvestan. Perhaps the
most characteristic and striking relics of Sasanian art are rock sculptures carved on abrupt
limestone cliffs—for example, at Shāhpūr (Bishapur), Naqsh-e Rostam, and Naqsh-e Rajab.
Metalwork and gem engraving became highly sophisticated. Scholarship was encouraged by the
state, and works from both the East and the West were translated into Pahlavi, the language of
the Sasanians.

Hormizd II, (died 309), king of the Sāsānian empire (reigned AD 302–309); he was the son
and successor of Narses. Little is known of Hormizd’s reign, although according to one ancient
source he executed some members of the Manichaean religion. At Hormizd’s death powerful
nobles killed his son Adhur-Narses, who had assumed the throne, and imprisoned another
son, Hormizdas. In 324 Hormizdas escaped to the court of the Roman emperor Constantine the
Great.
Bahrām VI Chūbīn, (flourished 6th century AD), (reigned 590–591). A general and head of the
house of Mihran at Rayy (near modern Tehrān), he performed, in gaining the throne, a feat
exceptional for one not of Sāsānian royal blood.In 591, he was overthrown and his rival
Khosrow regained the throne. Bahrām escaped to Turkistan, where he was assassinated.

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Yazdegerd III, (died 651, Merv, Sāsānian Empire), the last king of the Sāsānian
dynasty (reigned 632–651), the son of Shahryār and a grandson of Khosrow II.
A mere child when he was placed on the throne, Yazdegerd never actually exercised power. In
his first year the Arab invasion began, and in 636/637 the Battle of al-Qādisīyah on one of the
Euphrates canals decided the fate of the empire. His capital, Ctesiphon, was occupied by the
Arabs, and Yazdegerd fled into Media, where his generals unsuccessfully attempted to organize
resistance. After the Battle of Nahāvand (642), in which Sāsānian forces were badly defeated,
Yazdegerd sought refuge in one district after another, until at last he was slain at Merv.

The Parsis—Zoroastrians who immigrated to western India on the advent of Islām—still use
the old Persian calendar and continue to count the years from Yazdegerd’s accession.

Ardashīr II, (flourished 4th century), king of the Sāsānian empire in

ancient Persia (reigned AD 379–383). During the reign of his brother Shāpūr II, he had been king
of Adiabene (now a region of northeast Iraq), where he took part in the persecution of Christians.
He was soon deposed in his old age.
Battle of Edessa, (260). Greece’s wars with Persia have acquired all but mythic status in the
Western tradition, confirming European superiority over Oriental ways. Less well reported are
the triumphs of the later Sassanid Persian Empire over Rome, culminating in the crushing defeat
of Emperor Valerian at Edessa.
The Sassanid emperor Shāpūr I according to the Naqsh-e Rustam inscription, his army was
70,000 strong, and at first it seems to have made real headway. By the time the men reached
Edessa (in what is now southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border), they were beginning to
flag, however. Valerian decided that his troops should hole up in the city, to which Shāpūr
immediately laid siege. An outbreak of plague here cut a swath through what was soon a
severely weakened Roman army. When Valerian led a deputation to Shāpūr’s camp to negotiate
a settlement, he was captured with his staff and taken back to Persia as a prisoner. Valerian died
in captivity.
Bahrām V, also called Bahrām Gūr, (flourished 5th century AD;), Sāsānian king (reigned 420–
438). He was celebrated in literature, art, and folklore for his chivalry, romantic adventures, and
huntsmanship.
for centuries on the coinage of Bukhara (in modern Uzbekistan).
Bahrām IV, (flourished 4th century AD), Sāsānian king (reigned 388–399).One of the sons
of Shāpūr II, Bahrām first served as governor of Kermān before succeeding his brother Shāpūr
III on the throne. Although the partition of Armenia with Rome is frequently ascribed to Bahrām,
it probably occurred in 387, during the reign of his brother Shāpūr.
Kavadh I, also spelled Qobād, (died Sept. 13, 531), king of the Sāsānian empire
of Persia (reigned 488–496 and 498/499–531). He was a son of Fīrūz and succeeded Fīrūz’
brother Balāsh as ruler.
The history of Baghdad begins when the city of Baghdad (Arabic: ‫ بغداد‬Baġdād) was founded in
the mid 8th century as the Abbasid capital, following the Abbasid victory over the Umayyad
Caliphate. It replaced the Sassanid capital of Seleucia-Ctesiphon some 35 km to the south-east,
which was mostly depopulated by the end of the 8th century. Baghdad was the center of the
Caliphate during the "Golden Age of Islam" of the 9th and 10th centuries, growing to be
the largest city worldwide by the beginning of the 10th century. It began to decline in the

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"Iranian Intermezzo" of the 9th to 11th centuries and was destroyed in the Mongolian invasion in
1258.
The city was rebuilt and flourished under Ilkhanid rule but never rose to its former glory again. It
was again sacked by Timur in 1401 and fell under the Turkic rule. It was briefly taken
by Safavid Persia in 1508, before falling to the Ottoman Empire in 1534. With the dissolution of
the Ottoman Empire, Baghdad fell under the British Mandate in 1920 and became the capital of
the independent Kingdom of Iraq in 1932 (converted to a Republic in 1958).
As the capital of the modern Republic of Iraq, Baghdad has a metropolitan area estimated at a
population of 7,000,000 divided into numerous neighborhoods in nine districts. It is the largest
city in Iraq. It is the second-largest city in the Arab-speaking regions (after Cairo) and the
second-largest city in Western Asia (after Tehran).
The circilar cities of the Zoroastriand have to do with the conecpt of CIRCLE as enuncaied in the
teachings featuring the Ahura Mazda the godlike figure dominating this faith.
The Zoroastrian Wondrous Circle of Life: : The Zoroastrian mystic revelation of Khshnoom
teaches us that there are two main Cosmoses. One is immortal, divine and perfect. In this
cosmos, time and space are united. This cosmos is called Hasti. We shall leave Hasti where it is.
Our main interest lies in the second cosmos, which is mortal, moving towards divinity (some
parts of it are divine) and imperfect. This cosmos is called Nisti, where time and space are
separated. The entire Nisti cosmos can be furthered sub divided into various regions. It is
difficult to give a two dimensional view of the Nisti cosmos when it is actually made up of
several dimensions. However, to give a rough idea, the drawing below gives an imperfect view.
Serious students are requested to download this image and print it out and then read the
description given below for a clearer understanding of the topic.

The main feature and defining structure of the Nisti cosmos are the 7 Dakhyus or planes. These
7 planes of Nisti are like concentric globes one within the other. However, each plane is also
connected to the others through many dimensions which cannot be shown on the map.

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An aerial photo of Sasanian circular city of Gōr, in Iran, and a reconstruction of city as it may
have appeared in its heyday. Gōr was new capital city of Ardashir I (180-242 AD), founder of
Sasanian Empire, and had a perfect circular plan of 1,950m diameter.

The Faravahar is one of the best-known symbols of Zoroastrianism, an Iranian religion. There
are various interpretations of what the Faravahar symbolizes, and there is no concrete universal
consensus on its meaning. However, it is commonly believed that the Faravahar serves as a
Zoroastrian depiction of the fravashi, or personal spirit. it is one of the best-known symbols
of Zoroastrianism, an Iranian religion. There are various interpretations of what the Faravahar
symbolizes, and there is no concrete universal consensus on its meaning. However, it is
commonly believed that the Faravahar serves as a Zoroastrian depiction of the fravashi, or
personal spirit.

What does the Zoroastrian symbol mean?

The Faravahar is an ancient symbol of the Zoroastrian faith. It depicts a bearded man with one
hand reaching forward. He stands above a pair of wings that are outstretched from a circle
representing eternity. Fire is another important symbol of Zoroastrianism, as it represents light,
warmth and has purifying powers
The pre-Zoroastrian use of the symbol originates as the winged sun used by various powers of
the Ancient Near East, primarily those of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Zoroastrian

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adoption of the symbol comes from its prevalence in Neo-Assyrian iconography. This Assyrian
image often includes their Tree of Life, which includes the god Ashur on a winged disk

In Zoroastrian culture
The faravahar was depicted on the tombs of Achaemenid kings, such as Darius the Great (r. 522–
486 BC) and Artaxerxes III (r. 358–338 BC). The symbol was also used on some of the coin
mints of the frataraka of Persis in the late 3rd and early 2nd BC centuries. Even after the Arab
conquest of Iran, Zoroastrianism continued to be part of Iranian culture. Throughout the year,
festivities are celebrated such as Nowruz, Mehregan, and Chaharshanbe Suri which relate
to Zoroastrian festivals and calendar. These are remnants of Zoroastrian traditions. From the start
of the 20th century, the faravahar icon found itself in public places and became a known icon
among Iranians. The Shahnameh by Ferdowsi is Iran's national epic and contains stories (partly
historical and partly mythical) from pre-Islamic Zoroastrian times and is neither Zoroastrian nor
Persian in its origin. It originates as a Mesopotamian Assyrian depiction of the wing deity Ashur.
After the Achaemenianbut dynasty, the image of the farohar was no longer present in Persian art
or architecture.
In Zoroastrian design which is very religious there are amany circular shapes. A dakhma, also
known as a Tower of Silence, is a circular, raised structure built
by Zoroastrians for excarnation (that is, the exposure of human corpses to the elements for
decomposition), in order to avert contamination of the soil and other natural elements by the
dead bodies Carrion birds, usually vultures and other scavengers, consume the flesh. Skeletal

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remains are gathered into a central pit where further weathering and continued breakdown
occurs.

Architectural and functional features

 The towers are uniform in their construction.
 The roof of the tower is lower in the middle than the outer and is divided into three concentric circles.
 The dead bodies are placed on stone beds on the roof of the tower and there is a central ossuary pit,
into which the bodies fall after eaten by vultures.
 The bodies disintegrate naturally assisted with lime and the remaining is washed off by rainwater into
multiple filters of coal and sand, finally reaching the sea.

The circular citadel city of Gur was the first capital of the Sassanid Empire. It is situated in
Fars province, about 110 km south of Shiraz.
Ardeshir-e Pabakan, the first king of Sassanid dynasty, is named as the city’s founder in most
sources. He chose the city as his capital and populated it.
The ancient city is striking for its completely circular shape, which is in fact associated with the
earlier Parthian Dynasty. The city’s specific architectural style is a representation of the
transition from the Parthian to the Sassanid era, according an article on the wonders of Iranian
city planning, published by the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies.
Based on the historian Tabari’s account and supported by archeological evidence, the city was
founded prior the important battle in which Ardashir defeated the last Arsacid king, Ardavan
(Artabanus IV) in April 28, A.D. 224.
According to Islamic documents, prior to the construction of Gur city, the area where Gur is
located, was flooded by Alexander of Macedonia and turned to wetland. Later, by order of
Ardeshir I, the wetland was drained.
Defense

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 With Ardeshir
still fighting to gain power, defense was the city’s primary function. Remains of the polygonal
and spider-web defensive walls can still be traced 10 km off the central part of the city.
The Firuzabad plain, where Gur is located, may have been chosen for this very defensive
concern; it is almost entirely surrounded by mountains, but for two narrow gorges.
Gur was surrounded by a main wall of stamped clay, a ditch 35 meter wide, and a fore-wall. The
plan of the city is a perfect circle of 1,950 meter diameter, divided into 61 sectors by 20 radial
walls and 3 concentric circles, with the core circle of 450 meters in diameter, where official
buildings such as a fire temple were constructed.
Four gates open to city of Gur: to the north lies Hormuz Gate; to the south Ardeshir Gate;
eastward faces the gate of Mithra; and Bahram Gate opens to the west.
A famous tower or mil in the circular city is today among the only visible and standing remains
in the city. The mil stands at the very centre of the city. It is a pier of rough stone masonry 9
meter square and more than 30 meters high. It was the core of a stair-tower, and thought to have
had a winding external stairway.

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Gur lost its status as a capital in the reign of Shapur I (240 – 270). Three centuries after the Arab
invasion, the historian, Mas’udi, talks of the existence of the fire temple of Ardeshir-Khorra,
which shows a continuous Zoroastrian tradition in the region. The name Gur was eventually
changed to Firuzabad (victory town) during the Buyid period.

Above left-Symbol of Iran before revolution in 1979. RIGHT Zoroastrian Emblems of

Ahura Mazda

Imperial Coat of Arms of Iran under the

Pahlavi Dynasty, used from 1925 to 1979. The
shield is composed of the Lion and the Sun
symbol in first quarter , in the second quarter
the Faravahar representing Zoroastrianism,
in the third quarter the curved blade of a
Imam Ali "Zulfiqar" sword representing Shia
Islam, and the Simurgh in the fourth quarter.
Overall in the center is a circle depicting
Mount Damavand with a rising sun, the
symbol of the Pahlavi dynasty. The shield is
crowned by the Pahlavi crown and
surrounded by the chain of the Order of
Pahlavi. Two lions rampant regardant,
holding scimitars supports the coat of arms on
either side. Under the whole device is the
motto: "Mara dad farmud va Khod Davar
Ast" ("Justice He bids me do, as He will judge
me" or, alternatively, "He gave me power to
command, and He is the judge"). Some of the
colours were changed in 1971.

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The site of the ancient city of Gor with the pillar at its center. Photo: Amin
malekzadeh/Wikimedia

The Mysterious Pillar at The Center of The Circular City of Gor

In the year 330 BC, Alexander the Great advanced through the Persian territory, conquering its
cities and regions, culminating in the capture of Persepolis. A little further south of the ancient
Achaemenid capital was the city of Gor, which offered him such resistance that to surrender it he
had to resort to a stratagem, the legend of which is told in Iranian history.
He built a dam in a nearby gorge, retaining the water of a river that crossed the plain in which the
city was located, completely flooding it and creating a lake that remained until the beginning of
the 3rd century AD, when the first Sassanid Persian king Ardacher tunneled to drain it and
destroyed the dam. The plain dried up and the ruins of the city reappeared.
In that same place Ardacher founded his new capital, which would be known as Khor Ardashīr
or Gor. He made it stand on a circular plan (several centuries before the famous circular city of
Baghdad ) with such precise measurements that the Persian historian Ibn Balkhi wrote that it was
designed with a compass.

It was 1,950 meters in diameter and was surrounded by a protective moat 35 meters wide, which
could only be circumvented by means of four bridges that gave access to its four gates, one at
each of the cardinal points, and a clay wall. The city was divided into 20 sectors by a precise
geometric system of 20 radial streets and several concentric ones.
Inside there was another walled circle, with a radius of 450 meters, in which the royal buildings
and palaces were built. The old circular layout of the city can still be seen in the current
landscape of the area. And also something else. The remains of a large tower, which was
originally about 30 meters high, and of which only the core of its structure remains.

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Photo: Carole Raddato/Wikimedia

The Arabs called it Terbal, but the Persians knew it as Minar (literally, pillar ) or Minaret . It had
a design with an external spiral staircase, unique in Persia, and although it is not known exactly
what function it fulfilled, there are several hypotheses about it. Adding the width of the
destroyed stairs and the outer walls, it is calculated that the width of the tower would be about 20
meters.
The Minar and the Fire Temple (Takht-e Neshin) were the only two structures in the city made
of granite masonry. The first Westerners to point out the uniqueness of the structure in Persian
architecture were Eugène Flandin and Pascal Coste, but the first to carry out a systematic study
was Ernst Herzfeld, who identified it as a stair-tower.
Before Herzfeld's study, the Minar was believed to be Takht-e Neshin itself, the temple with the
sacred fire placed on top to prevent dust contamination.
Some authors are of the opinion that it symbolized the divine and centralist kingship of
Ardacher's state ideology, at the same time that it had a practical use, since it provided visual
contact with the fortifications located on the main access road to the plain, in the gorge of Tang-
ab. This military function must have been indispensable for surveying activities when the
planning scheme of the city was drawn up.
It could also serve as an observation tower, while the works of the plan envisaged by Ardacher
for the new city and the plain were executed. In fact, the entire scheme is centered on the Minar,
and the concentric and radial pattern of the city was continued even up to 10 kilometers away,
where traces of canals, roads, and walls have been found.

Artistic representation of the Minar as a fire temple, drawing by Zenaide A. Ragozin (1889).
A recent study suggests that it may have been a water tower, with water from nearby elevated
sources flowing through pipes and the hollow core of the minar to its dome, and from there to
other points in the city.
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The sources record the existence of similar towers in other places of the Persian empire. For
example, the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus writing during the 4th century AD,
mentions one at the Nahar Malka (a canal connecting the Tigris and Euphrates near the Persian
capital Ctesiphon) , and compares it to the lighthouse of Alexandria.
The Greek historian Zosimus cites, at the end of the 5th century AD, several towers in the town
of Al-Anbar (ancient Pirisabora, in central Iraq). However, according to Richard Gottheil, these
may have been based on ancient ziggurats.

The design of the Minar of Gor may have inspired the famous spiral minaret of the Great
Mosque of Samarra in Iraq. This, in turn, would inspire the Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo, both
built during the Abbasid period, in the 9th century AD.
The city of Gor was destroyed, again, during the Muslim Arab invasion of the seventh century,
although it would be rebuilt again. King Adud al-Dawla changed its name to Peroz-abad
(literally, city of victory) around 950 AD, because in the Neo-Persian language then spoken the
word Gōr had come to mean tomb , and he found it unpleasant to reside in one.
The name finally derived is Firuzabad and the city was definitively abandoned in the Qajar
period, when its inhabitants moved to the nearby settlement (about 3 kilometers away) that today
bears the same name.

This article was originally published in La Brújula Verde. It has been translated from Spanish
and republished with permission
The circular city of Ardašīr-Xwarrah

One of the most remarkable cities of Sasanian Iran was Ardašīr-Xwarrah, the first royal city of
the empire founded by Ardašīr I in 224 AD. While historical texts and archaeological surveys
only provide details about the ruined architectural monuments of the complex, the circular-
concentric layout of the city has been the subject of several speculative interpretations.

Hossein Maroufi in his research points towards the cosmological significance of Ardašīr-
Xwarrah’s layout. Then, in order to elucidate the ‘meaning’ of urban form in this city, the article
offers a rigorous analysis of cosmological and geopolitical structure of the empire, whilst also
taking into account the existing historical and archaeological data. Since the cosmological
principles of the layout cannot be recovered from known historical documents, a number of
hypothetical explanations of the city’s layout are proposed main one being thatanalysis of
Sasanian cities should be based on more objective and rigorous methods in order to contribute to
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the knowledge of ancient urban planning in Iran.

Firuzabad or Ardashir-Khwarrah, literally "The Glory of Ardashir"; also Shahr-e Gūr is a

city and capital of Firuzabad County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was
58,210, in 12,888 families. Firuzabad is located south of Shiraz. The city is surrounded by a mud
wall and ditch.
The original ancient city of Gor, dating back to the Achaemenid period, was destroyed
by Alexander the Great. Centuries later, Ardashir I, the founder of the Sassanian Empire, revived
the city before it was ransacked during the Arab Muslim invasion of the seventh century. It was
again revived by the Buyids, but was eventually abandoned in the Qajar period and was replaced
by a nearby town, which is now Firuzabad.

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Ghal'eh Dokhtar on the Left and the Royal Palace is on the right
1. Urban planning in ancient cities of Iran: understanding the meaning of urban form in the
Sasanian city of Ardašīr-Xwarrah, Planning Perspectives, 35:6, 1055-
1080, DOI: 10.1080/02665433.2019.1684353

Gor dates back to the Achaemenid era. It was situated in a low-lying area of the region, so,
during his invasion of Persia, Alexander the Great was able to drown the city by directing the
flow of a river into the city. The lake he created remained until Ardashir I built a tunnel to drain
it. He founded his new capital city on this site.
Ardashir's new city was known as Khor Ardashīr, Ardashīr Khurrah and Gōr. It had a circular
plan so precise in measurement that the Persian historian Ibn Balkhi wrote it to be "devised using
a compass". It was protected by a trench 50 meters in width, and was 2 kilometers in diameter.
The city had four gates; to the north was the Hormozd Gate, to the south the Ardashir Gate, to
the east the Mithra Gate and to the west the Wahram Gate. The royal capital's compounds were
constructed at the center of a circle 450 m in radius. At the center of the town there was a lofty
platform or tower, called Terbal. It was 30 m high and spiral in design. The design is unique in
Iran, and there are several theories regarding the purpose of its construction. It is thought to have
been the architectural predecessor of the Great Mosque of Samarra of Iraq and its distinctive
minaret, the malwiya. In the Sasanian period, the abbreviation ART (in Inscriptional Pahlavi)
was used as the mint signature to refer to Gōr.
Gōr and Istakhr strenuously resisted the invading Arab Muslims in the 630s and 640s; they were
conquered by Abdallah ibn Amr in 649–50.
The city's importance was revived again in the reign of Adud al-Dawla of the Buyid dynasty,
who frequently used the city as his residence. It is at this time that the old name of the city, Gōr,
was abandoned in favor of the new. In New Persian, spoken at the time, the word Gōr had come
to mean "grave." King Adud al-Dawla, as the story goes, found it distasteful to reside in a

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"grave." As per his instruction, the city's name was changed to Peroz-abad, "City of Victory."
Since then, the city has been known by variations of that name, including Firuzabad. However,
there is a 7th-century Arab-Sassanian coin from Ardashir-Khwarra during Umayyad period in
which pylwj'b'd (Pahlavi; Pērōzābād) is mentioned as the mint.
The city was eventually abandoned in Qajar period and its nearby settlement was populated,
which is now the modern Firuzabad located 3 km to the east of the site of Gor. Today, among
the attractions of Firuzabad are the Sassanid Ghal'eh Dokhtar, the Palace of Ardeshir, and the fire
temple and its nearby Minar.
Veh-Ardashir (also spelled as Beh-Ardashir and Weh-Ardashir), was an ancient Sasanian city
in present-day Iraq, and formed a suburb of their capital, Ctesiphon.Originally known
as Seleucia, the city was rebuilt and renamed in 230 by the founder of the Sasanian Empire,
king Ardashir I (r. 224-240). The city was known as Mahoza by the Jews, Kokhe (Syriac) by
the Christians, and Behrasir by the Arabs. Veh-Ardashir was populated by many wealthy Jews,
and was the seat of the church of the Church of the East patriarch.In the Talmud, it is written as
Ardashir, located across the Tigris River from the city of Ctesiphon. The city was walled and
was circular by design.
A governor marzban (general of a frontier province, "margrave") is known to have resided in a
fortress in the northern part of this city in ca. 420. During the mid-5th century,
a flooding occurred in Veh-Ardashir, which divided the city in two. This resulted in a decline of
the city, and the abandonment of many parts of the city. During the reign of king Khosrau
II (590-628), a palace was constructed near a garden named Bagh-i Hinduvan (meaning "the
garden of the Indians"). In 636, Veh-Ardashir was captured by the Arab general Khalid ibn
Urfuta during the Muslim conquest of Persia.

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Ecbatana "the place of gathering was an ancient city in Media in western Iran. It is believed
that Ecbatana is in Hagmatana Hill (Tappe-ye Hagmatāna), an archaeological
mound in Hamedan.
According to Herodotus, Ecbatana was chosen as the Medes' capital in the late 8th century BC
by Deioces. Under the Achaemenid Persian kings, Ecbatana, situated at the foot of Mount
Alvand, became a summer residence. Later, it became the capital of the Parthian kings, at which
time it became their main mint, producing drachm, tetradrachm, and
assorted bronze denominations. The wealth and importance of the city in the Persian empire is
attributed to its location on a crucial crossroads that made it a staging post on the main east–west
highway.
In 330 BC, Ecbatana was the site of the assassination of the Macedonian general Parmenion by
order of Alexander the Great

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