The many buildings which make up Persepolis are on an artificial terrace about 300 metres long and 450 meters wide, between 10 and 20 meters above ground-level. You reach the terrace by a monumental double staircase.
The gaunt beauty of the Mountains, the immense landscape, the deep silence which pervades, the site remote from any village, are appropriate for the sacred character of this necropolis sheltering the tombs of the main Achaemenian Sovereigns (Cyrus lies in solitude at Pasargadae). From right to left, the tombs are those of Xerxes, Darius the Great Artaxerxes I and Darius II. Darius the Great's Tomb is larger than the others.
