It has been universally admitted that "the palaces" or "the palace" (rIt [3aaiXEca) burned down by Alexander are those now in ruins at Takht-i-Jamshid. Several of these bear evident traces of having been destroyed by fire. The locality described by Diodorus after Cleitarchus corresponds in important particu lars with Takht-i-Jamshid, for example, in being supported by the mountain on the east. If Diodorus says that the rock at the back of the palace containing the royal sepulchres is so steep that the bodies could be raised to their last resting-place only by mechanical appliances, it is evident that he or his source (Clei tarchus), who can scarcely have visited the place, confounded the tombs behind the palaces with those of Naksh-i-Rustum.
In 316 B.C. Persepolis was still the capital of Persis as a prov ince of the great Macedonian empire. The city gradually de clined; but the ruins of the Achaemenidae remained as a wit ness to its ancient glory. It is probable that the principal town of the country, or at least of the district, was always in this neighbourhood. About A.D. 200 we find there the city Istakhr (properly Stakhr) as the seat of the local governors. There the foundations of the second great Persian empire were laid, and Istakhr acquired special importance as the centre of priestly wis dom and orthodoxy. The Sassanian kings have covered the face of the rocks in this neighbourhood, and in part even the Achae menian ruins, with their sculptures and inscriptions, and must themselves have built largely here, although never on the same scale of magnificence as their ancient predecessors. The Romans
knew as little about Istakhr as the Greeks had done about Per sepolis, in spite of the fact that for four hundred years the Sas sanians maintained relations, friendly or hostile, with the empire.
At the time of the Arabian conquest Istakhr offered a desperate resistance, but the city was still a place of considerable impor tance in the ist century of Islam (see CALIPHATE), although its greatness was speedily eclipsed by the new metropolis Shiraz In the loth century Istakhr had become an utterly insignificant place, as may be seen from the descriptions of Istakhr, a native (c. 95o), and of Mukaddasi (c. 985). During the following cen turies Istakhr gradually declines, until, as a city. it ceased to exist. This fruitful region, however, was covered with villages till the frightful devastations of the 18th century ; and even now it is, comparatively speaking, well cultivated. The "castle of Istakhr" played a conspicuous part several times during the Mohammedan period as a strong fortress. It was the middle most and the highest of the three steep crags which rise from the valley of the Kur, at some distance W. or N.W. of Naksh-i Rustum.