Went to Iran, including Persepolis, a few years ago, before the US pulled out of the nuclear agreement. Beautiful country and fascinating history. What struck me most though was how incredibly friendly and welcoming the local people were. I've never been anywhere else where the locals seemed so genuinely pleased to have you visit. A shame that politics gets in the way.
Yeah, I think the people of Shiraz and Fars in general are some of the friendliest in the country...very laid back too. When you talk to them you can tell that they're extremely proud of their past. Thanks for watching!
Is all the truth political issues just in the way between our people . Instead of building a bridge to connect with ancient culture . That gave the world 🌎🌍 so much
Yeah, some have been restored but ones on the eastern part of the Apadana are the best preserved. Thanks so much for watching and looking forward to your travel vids as well!
@@ancientsitesgirl Yet so much got lost. People who lived there during that time couldn't imagine it would look like this now. Makes you wonder about how much can change in time.. time has no mercy.
Thank you so much for the amazingly detailed presentation Cy! As someone who’s been to so many ancient sites throughout the years, I can tell you the quality of craftsmanship in Persepolis is almost second to none, I mean specially when you compare it to other sites from the same period. Everything is amazingly detailed and well crafted. Some details that only designers care about are also unbelievable, like for example circles are amazingly round, corners are almost always 90 degrees, elements that have been repeatedly used are like they have been copied and pasted. Everything is aligned perfectly which makes you wonder how superior the craft should have looked compared to other sites of the era, at the height of its splendor and glory. Another thing that is worth mentioning here is that many ancient sites have similar or sometimes even identical twins somewhere else, whether it’s in their overall design or decorative elements. This site is also unique in the amalgamation of forms and elements as well. Definitely worth a visit
Yes, agree with you. I was just thinking about it when I was reviewing the footage of the bull capitals on how much detail the architects and craftsmen put into them, even the little flowers that cover them, knowing that they were eventually going to be 20 meters high where it would difficult for the naked eye to see! Incredible when you think about it. And each column had such detail. I have footage from other sites that I can put together like this - Pasargadae, Naqsh-e Rustam and some Sasanian ones (Takht-e Suleiman), but they won't be as long as this one. Anyway thanks for watching and stay tuned for more!
@@HistorywithCy That would be awesome! I’m honestly hooked on your content specially since the episode on Neo-Elamites. Truly glad you could visit the old country. I’ll be looking forward to watching those as well. Best wishes
This is an awe inspiring presentation Cy. Thankyou. I also identify with the comments of @hosseinsharni. I am not on your level of knowledge but have had a lifelong love of the beauty and magnificence of Persepolis and of Achaemenid Iran. I have studied every photo I’ve come across for the designs of the carvings and the architecture on the sites. In an amateur way I have designed motifs on paper and had them made into fretwork for doorways/corridors/wall decorations ….. I have a number of replicas from The Louvre which I cherish as they show the items in the original 3-dimensions. A magnificent book which describes in detail the art and architecture of ancient Iran, edited by Jean Perrot, is well worth getting if you don’t have it already. The book is ‘The Palace of Darius at Susa … The Great Royal Residence of Achaemenid Persia’. Jean Perrot had been in charge of the excavations at Susa up until the late 70’s. He and the other scholars loved Iran and the people they had been working with and wanted to pay tribute to them by putting the vast wealth of information they had into a public book rather than write articles for academic journals. They took years to do this (it’s a big book). This is enough from me. I don’t expect either of you will see this message as it’s written 6 months after yours. However I’ve been so pleased to have indirect contact with you as I don’t have people interested in this amongst my friends. I live in Australia.
I’m visiting Italy in March and I’m so excited to see the remnants of what used to be one of the greatest empires in history. I hope one day that I will also have the opportunity to visit Iran and specifically to this beautiful ancient city.
I hope you will too! Actually I'm hoping to visit Italy as well sometime in the next year or two as I start doing some Roman history. Plan is to move sort of chronologically... right now finishing up the Bronze and Iron Ages and hoping to move further along the timeline of antiquity this year. Thanks for watching!
Thanks so much for the awesome beautiful documentary . Greetings from Minneapolis Minnesota ♥️♥️🙏👍👍👍👍 hope to visit this magical and ancient PERSIAN -IRANIAN city and lay flower and pray for been there with all my ❤ the Almighty AHURA MAZDA BLESS YOU all 🇮🇷💝💝 and all of u that love Irani culture from the beginning of time and yas given si much to western culture
Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoyed it! Hope to do more videos like this - history and then touring a site. More on the way, stay tuned and thanks for watching!
If time travel becomes a thing, there are so many amazing places I plan on visiting in antiquity, that’s for sure. Thanks for the educational videos, I wish this info was taught everywhere, history like this is sacred and should be preserved as long as possible.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it and agree with you, there are so many amazing places that I wish I could travel back in time and just be a fly on a wall and observe. Thanks for watching!
I'm going to go ahead and imagine that the two hours you spent filming this was after you'd already spent three hours admiring the site. Absolutely stunning to see just scattered ruins and imagine what it must have looked like in it's prime.
Yes, I did some exploring in the beginning and then just thought of doing it all again by walking around with a GoPro because I really wanted to capture everything I saw. I'm glad I did because watching the footage again and again keeps the site fresh in my mind. Thanks for watching, really appreciate it!
Wow, thanks for the amazing informative video! I've been fortunate enough to visit Persepolis twice whilst visiting Iran, and learned allot from my tours there from the guides, but this gave me an even greater understanding love your videos. I found it so impressive how well preserved it was and because it was Iran, there were barely any other people there, the freedom you had roaming around, compare it to how crowded it can get in cities like Rome or Athens, and then compare it to Persepolis.
Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoyed it! Yeah this was my second time there too. It's definitely attracted a lot more visitors in the past 10 years. When I was there (and you can even hear their voices at times in the video) there were a lot of people from Spain, France and Italy visiting on the day I was there. Persepolis is the best known but there are other interesting archaeological sites on the off beaten path. Have a few more videos like this one coming soon (Naqsh-e Rustam, Pasargadae, Ardeshir's palace in Firuzabad and Lothal in India). Thanks again for watching!
Haha yes, it was the one place there I couldn't access. I wonder what they keep in there... documents from the excavations, rare books, cuneiform tablets? I so wanted to know... Thanks for watching!
Yeah I too hope to go back one day soon and explore it again and also other sites in the region. Not sure when that'll be but hope one day soon. Thanks for watching!
No worries, it'll still be up. Actually the last hour and half is just walking through the site...the history part is in the first 25 minutes or so. As always thanks for watching, really appreciate it!
Thank you for all of your videos,I have been watching most of them all week and will continue to re watch as it takes a while for me to sort all the different events.I was surprised at how ofton the city states change rulers and or had their cities destroyed over and.over again.I like your channel because i can trust it to be factual without a lot of sensationalism.I even like the sound of your voice,which is a big deal if you are trying to learn late in life as me,Mostly I want to be able to converse with my super smart grandson and interest him in the ancient past.I like the way you break down the time periods and dynasties into segments,And i like the way you in lude what is written on the tablets.I have a couple of questions about their gods but will ask later.Thanks.again,I really do enjoy all of your videos,Deb.,from Kentucky
Hi Deb, thanks so much for the kind words, glad you're enjoying the videos on this channel, means a lot and motivates me to put out more for you all! Stay tuned for some new stuff coming out this month and thanks for watching!
*_Something I like is the fact that the relief depicitng a median man holding his mouth infront of the king seated on his throne was put in the treasury because it was too controversial and probably frowned upon by the Medes who visited thus the king had to get rid of it because the medes were still powerful and would not see themselves be depicted as some sort of convict or prisoner. It showed that the medes still had power but also that the Achaemid empire were not about destroying history so thus it was put in the treasury_*
You know, I was thinking the same thing... how many people must have walked up and down those steps! it gives you goosebumps! Thanks for watching, really appreciate it and stay tuned for more!
A banger of a video Cy! I'll never get there myself so it was awesome to experience this virtually. How is it travelling to Iran? Easy for a westerner?
Hi my friend and so sorry for the late response, was away for a bit. Glad you liked the video! To answer your question, it depends on the passport you hold. It's hardest for US and UK passport holders to get a visa, and it can only be obtained if you're on a government-approved tour. If you are on an approved tour and you pass their background check, in most cases I think they will grant you a 30-day entry-exit visa. If you're a Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swiss, French and maybe even German citizen, then it's relatively easy to get a visa and you don't have to be on a tour, you can mostly travel freely from what I understand. If you have dual nationality that can also help. I know of an American who also has Italian citizenship and he applied with his Italian passport and had no trouble getting a visa. When I went in October there were many tourists from eastern Europe too, though most were on a tour and were from Hungary and Russia. Hope this helps!
Me: Loving and enjoying the walkthrough. Also me: Hi Mr. Liz- ope off he goes. Also also me: Them lion and bull (?) reliefs are pretty funny, it's like the bull's looking and saying to the lion, "You know I can gore you right?"
Re-watching this video on a gloomy Oregon morning. It’s just such a fascinating video. I think a boat trip down the Euphrates or Tigris would be awesome! Maybe someday that’ll be a possibility.
Cy you ever thought of putting videos out on Tuesday or Wednesday? Everyone puts them out at the weekend and there is nothing new by mid week. You might get more views doing that - I am not sure. Just an idea. Top content as ever, bro.
That's is a good idea. Honestly though I just put them out as soon as they're done, which is usually around the weekend. I was thinking of putting out more consistent, shorter videos once a week but my schedule is never predictable so now I just work on one or two videos at a time and release them whenever they're ready. Thanks for the suggestion though and also for watching!
Incredibly good Cy! As you might notice, some of the faces of the reliefs and the faces of the Lammasus are destroyed. That's was unfortunately done by the Safavids, they always liked to destroy the ancient reliefs and believed they're representations of false gods(how ignorant they were) They also destroyed the only rock relief of Mithridates II in Behistun which is really really sad. Look what Islam has brought to my country.....
the Safavids fought and killed Muslims fare more than any, Shia Islam especially the Safavid version is full of illogical and heretical nonsensical stuff and No it is not sad what Islam brought to Iran. The Sassineda weren't that much civilized, Sunni Iran was at the peak of enlightenment back then. if early Muslims wanted to destroy any ruins they could have done it easily, you wouldn't even find trace of any of these attractions. also don't get high of yourself everything we see in this video is copied from Mesopotamian architecture nothing is Iranian about it.
Yeah Farya's channel is one of my favorites, I listen to it all the time when I'm working. I'm so happy that I got to add his music to this video because I think it really helped bring the story to life. Thanks for watching and more on the way, stay tuned!
Cyrus is considered as the pious moslem king called Dzulqarnain (king of two horns, which is interpreted to be the founder of new empire started with Persia & Media). The moslem text about this Cyrus (Dzulqarnain) can be found in Holy Qur'an (Koran) chapter 18. Have a nice research.. Btw, I really enjoy your channel. Great thanks & highly appreciated..👌
Awesome video of Awesome Place. How many times I said “Wow” as you ascended the Mountain of Mihr. You are a kindred spirit, lol. I relish the fact that the number 30 comes up so many times at this site. Even the year that it was destroyed by the Macedonian; 330 BCE.
Wow! This was amazing! I would LOVE to visit the ruins of Persepolis one day. I mean... When I finally get a break from work... And have enough Money... Yeah... ... Oh well🤷
For sure! Hope that your work is going well. Actually I did meet a few Italian, Spanish and French tourists when I was there (you can actually hear them speak in parts of the latter half of the video). Thanks for watching!
@@HistorywithCy Oh yes, I noticed that!😂 My work Is going om slowly, but steady. When my Canaan project will be complete, I will show it to some editors and hopefully get something out of it. In the meantime I am doing other things to earn some money.👍
Do you ever wonder about the people who make these historical buildings. Like your work will be studied and admired for hundreds or thousands of years. Even though your name will be lost to time your work will still stand.
Safety once you're in Iran actually isn't a problem, it's getting the visa to enter that can be difficult depending on your nationality and purpose for visiting. Also, timing makes a big difference. I met many people from EU countries that said they had no issue getting a tourist visa. US is harder and you have to be in an approved tour group but it's still possible. India, no problem. Other countries I can't say. Hope this helps and thanks for watching!
In 1988 I visited Mojenjo Daro and Harappa. Back then you could mosey through the sites with no restrictions. It was incredible. The experience just takes you away from reality.
Nice, always wanted to visit those sites. I visited the Harappan site of Lothal in Gujarat last month... not as big as the two you mentioned but interesting place for sure. Thanks for watching!
After 2500, some regions under the Achaemenid rule, such as Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Turkey, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, And Iran celebrates Nowruz. And the countries of Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan speak Persian language. Even some of the local instruments of the countries of this region are related to the Achaemenians.
It's on the list though I haven't been there...yet... and so I won't be able to post footage of the site like this. But one big video on Elam is coming up later on in the year! Thanks for watching!
Great video . As a historian Iranian should focus to preserve more historical ..Iran is the cradle of civilization for more than 12k years of history in Iranian plateau.
The documentary is amazing. There are some parts of Iran's history which historians never shared the same ideas about, but you managed to explain everything in an almost complete manner. And I love how >70% of Iranians, specifically the new generation, know so little about Iran's history. They Probably wont be watching any historical videos either. The stuff they learn at school is either incomplete, or filled with lies.
I've always wondered how setting these ancient stone buildings on fire destroyed them. How does that work? Did they use lots of wood to hold the stone in place?
Thank you Cy for these videos. Persepolis is amazing! Has anyone studied the weather that existed at the time Persepolis was built and in use? (I assume it was less dry than it is now) Has anyone studied the water system in use at that time in Persepolis (besides the well in the video) ?
Thank you for your detailed video. It's hard to understand why we humans still wage war when we have proven again and again how totally wasteful and pointless it is in the long run
As watching you walking by and make the tour for us to enjoy i cant help myself but imagine the music backround for the video and it would be no other from Europa Barbarorums "Eastern_TPC_Eastern6_CityOrder" ! If you are familiar with what i m talking about you ll understand , if not , worth to check it out XD Did i say THANK YOU ?!?!
Depends on the type of visa and your nationality. With most EU countries I don't think there's much of an issue for a tourist visa. I met people from Italy, France, many from Spain, Hungary and few others who were traveling there independently without any problems. There were also a lot of people from Japan, China, Malaysia, Russia, Turkey and India but they were in tour groups. US citizens can also go but they need to be in a tour group by a government approved company. So I guess it all depends. Hope this helps and thanks for watching!
I just can't help but imagine the experience of sitting on my magnificent throne, while bigshots from around the known world pile treasure at my feet. Not greed, just daydreaming.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! I'm back in the US now and planning the next archaeological adventure! Thanks so much for watching, really appreciate and stay tuned for more!
Concerning Alexander's destruction of Persepolis - the great 18th century Anglo=German composer Handel in his 1736 Ode "Alexander's Feast" has Alexander being stirred to fury by the singer Timotheus retelling the story of the injured Greek soldiers and how they were dealt with so cruelly by the Persians -Alexander,in drunken rage orders the palace to be burnt down.The work by Handel illustrates the moving power of music.
Oh interesting, I don't think I've heard it but I'm sure I can find it online and listen to it. Thanks for the suggestion and for watching, appreciate it!
