1-271-175 - Vivienne Sharp/Heritage Images

Relief of Syrians or Lydians, the Apadana, Persepolis, Iran. The capital of Achaemenid Persia, Persepolis was predominantly built during the reigns of the dynasty's founder, Darius I (522-485 BC) and his son Xerxes I (485-465 BC). One of the main, and earliest, buildings of the city was the great audience hall, the Apadana. Every year the king would receive tribute in the form of gifts from representatives of all the poples of the Achaemenid empire, which at its greatest extent stretched from Libya in the west to the Indus valley in the east. The eastern entrance to the Apadana was decorated with reliefs of the empire's subject peoples.