All language subtitles for Art of Persia 1of3 1080p BBC

This is a land known by two names.

The first is Persia.

TRADITIONAL MIDDLE EASTERN SINGING

Ancient.

Mysterious.

A place of adventure...

..of mighty temples and palaces...

..built by powerful kings.

A land of unimaginable beauty.

The other is Iran.

Isolated...

..proud...

..defiant...

..especially of foreign
interference.

Western documentary teams
are seldom given access,

but I am a British journalist

and I've been granted
a rare opportunity to travel

across this vast country

and discover its complex history
and culture for myself.

The Persians can seem like
a mystery at the edge

of the western imagination,

in the Old Testament, or battling
Alexander and the Romans

in classical history.

But the ripples of Persia's art
and language have travelled

outwards throughout the world,

transforming culture
across Europe and Asia.

If you think you know
the Persians, think again.

In this first episode,

I'm going to start at the birthplace
of Persian civilisation,

at one of the world's first cities,

and discover the mysterious
writing of its people.

Persia's great kings built
a vast empire and a rich culture

that became the envy of
the ancient world.

I'll find out how they defeated
no less than three Roman emperors

and how the Arab armies
eventually conquered the Persians

to build a new Islamic empire.

So, come with me on
a magical journey

to reveal Iran's
fascinating ancient past

and its impact on the world.

To most people,
Iran is a closed book

and our understanding of it
has been largely driven

by the last 40 years, when, in 1979,

revolution came to Iran
and Ayatollah Khomeini

transformed it
into an Islamic republic.

The country has been locked in
conflict with the West ever since.

When you look at modern Iran,

when you see it
surrounded by hostile forces,

by countries that are hostile to it,

Iran would like to remind them
that there was a time

that we were, not only were we
up there at the top table,

we were the hosts of the top table.

And look at this.

And look how much it has actually
influenced your literature,

your art, if you like.

The Persian civilisation and
the art and culture it produced

was once the envy of
the ancient world.

But, over the centuries,
Persia was invaded again and again

by brutal conquerors, greedy
for her lands and treasures.

They brought with them new laws,
new languages and a new religion.

But Persian culture survived,
even thrived.

Today, Iranians' sense
of who they are

is as strong as it was
when their story began.

They are the only people
in the Middle East

to preserve their
identity and language

despite waves of invasion
and revolution.

If you look at the people
of North Africa,

they used to speak Latin,
now they speak Arabic.

If you look at the Syrians,
they used to speak Greek,

now they speak Arabic.

So do the Egyptians.

It's the Persians who have
kept their language,

and, by the way, only the Persians.

There's something
special going on there.

That special thing that allowed
Persian language and culture

to survive was,
remarkably, this book.

It's called the Shahnameh...

..a collection of tales about
Iran's pre-Islamic kings.

The characters are part-mythical
and part-historical

and the book tells
of their heroic deeds

against divine and human forces.

It's a poetic rendition
of these supernatural tales,

historical tales, romances.

It's really a most magnificent,
grown-up storybook.

Shahnameh is the soul of Iran.

It's the absolute essence
of being Iranian.

It's a masterpiece of Persian

literature and history and language.

And, to most Iranians,
certainly to me,

it's like a Bible.

Although it was written
in the 10th century,

the characters and tales
are still much-loved today

because they provide
a link between the present

and 3,000 years of Persian culture.

I'm starting my journey
here in Tehran

because I want to get
a taste of this magical storybook.

I'm in a south Tehran teahouse where
a 1,000-year-old story book

is about to come alive on stage.

The Shahnameh,
the Persian Book of Kings,

is part-myth, part-epic history

and Iranians can't get enough
of its adventures.

It's central to their
sense of identity.

If you want to understand
the story of the Persians,

you need to dive into the Shahnameh.

The performance is about to begin.

HE SPEAKS IN FARSI

Tales from the Shahnameh
are retold by storytellers

in theatres and teahouses
all over Iran.

And the man who wrote it
would have been astonished

to learn his life's work
would still be performed and read

1,000 years later.

He was called Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi.

Handed down from
one generation to the next,

his epic book
became Iran's national myth.

Ferdowsi took 30 years
to write the Shahnameh,

but its storytelling power
has lasted 1,000

and travelled far beyond
the borders of Persia.

I'm of North Indian heritage
with a Persian name, Samira,

and was raised speaking Urdu,
a language closely related to Farsi.

And in the Indian comics
I read as a child,

there were all these stories
about the Persians as conquerors,

as bringers of culture,
as religious refugees.

I want to find out how Ferdowsi's
stories protected Persian language

and culture from repeated attempts
to destroy them.

But, first, I'm going to explore
the fabled civilisations

that emerged in this region...

..and find out how
the Persian Empire was born.

Our story starts over
3,000 years ago...

..with some ancient plumbing.

This is the end of a qanat,

an underwater tunnel that
was dug to bring water down

by the force of gravity
from the mountains

right here to where people needed it
to drink and irrigate their fields.

And it's still icy cold
when you touch it.

Qanats made life possible.

They made barren landscapes fertile.

They allowed people
to put down roots...

..to start making art...

..crafting beautiful objects,
such as this ornamental axe head...

..adorned with the tiny
figures of two wrestlers.

Or this figurine of a mysterious,
stocky warrior dressed in snakeskin.

Archaeologists have
nicknamed him Scarface.

But the skills of these early people

went far beyond the ability to
fashion bronze and gold.

They also made
extraordinary monuments...

..like this.

I've come to explore
the ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil

in Iran's southwestern desert.

The people who built it were
called the Elamites

and they attached great spiritual
importance to mountains.

Where there were no mountains,
they built their own.

This was constructed
over 3,000 years ago.

This place is such a beautiful
mystery, a relic of a lost world.

And I'm trying to
imagine it as it was,

bustling with temples to the many
Elamite gods and goddesses,

and the brickwork burnished
with gold and silver,

a statement of power by its king.

Time, wind and sun
have since taken their toll,

but the temple was once full of
beautiful objects and statues

devoted to the Elamite gods.

The bull was central to
Elamite culture.

In early Iranian creation myths, it
was the first animal in the world.

The Elamites worshipped a bull
god called Inshushinak.

And their kings constructed
ziggurats like this to worship him.

In its shadow,

archaeologists found
this blue, quartz pendant

polished and etched
with two Elamite figures.

This is a really remarkable
and absolute unique piece

of stone working because it depicts
an image of the king

and then his daughter, and we rarely
see women coming to the fore,

of course, in Elamite sources,
unfortunately.

So, here we have one.
And she's named as well as Bar-Uli.

And there she is,
standing diminutively.

She's depicted on a much smaller
scale in front of her father.

But the fact that she's there
at all, her presence is really quite

remarkable in an age, really,
where women just get bypassed

in the royal record.

We know of very, very few
Elamite queens or princesses.

Archaeologists made
other finds, too,

taking us even closer to the people
who once worshipped here.

This footprint is over
3,000 years old.

It's tempting to believe it
belongs to Bar-Uli,

the daughter of
King Shilhak-Inshushinak,

who gave her the pendant.

Perhaps she came here
with her father to worship,

to watch the bloody sacrifices
carried out by priests

to gratify the Elamite gods.

But Chogha Zanbil is much
more than a temple.

It's a book designed to be read
by future generations.

This is the writing of
the Elamites called cuneiform.

There are thousands of
engraved bricks.

Only nobody knew what the writing
meant until the 19th century

when archaeologists
unlocked their secrets.

The Chogha Zanbil inscriptions
are very repetitive

in many respects,

but they're important
because what they do is quite

literally stamp the authority of
the king on to the building itself.

So, every brick
essentially is saying,

"I am the King of Elam,
the King of Kings".

The Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil
is testimony to the sophistication

of the Elamite civilisation,

a civilisation that was
not only literate,

but gave rise to one of
the world's first urban cultures.

I'm now travelling a few miles north
of Chogha Zanbil

to explore what remains of
the Elamite capital city...

..Susa.

If you want to understand
the complexities of Persian culture,

then you couldn't come to
a better place than Susa.

I am really aware of the hum of the
modern city of Shush

in the background.
And the ruins of this Elamite city

are known to archaeologists
as the 15th City

because they're the earliest of

15 distinctive sets of eras
and ruins on this site,

dating back to at least 1,500 BC.

Excavations first started here
during the 19th century.

Among the finds, this bronze
of two Elamite worshippers.

In her left hand,
the woman clutches a bird,

whose significance is unknown to us.

It's incredible how rich
the land around here is

with these pieces of
Elamite culture.

So, just lying on the ground, we've
spotted stuff and picked them up

like this piece of
blue, glazed pottery

which has this amazing colour.

And then this, you can see
the grooves in it.

And we've been told by the guide
it's the lid of a storage jar

that would have contained
something like rice.

Stories about the wealth of Susa
spread throughout the ancient world

and soon her enemies
began to circle.

To the north, the Medians,

and to the east, the war-mongering
Persians led by King Cyrus.

This glazed relief shows a Persian
warrior ready for battle.

It was during the 7th century BC
that King Cyrus led

his mighty army to first
overthrow the Medians,

and then the Elamites,
after he captured their capital.

With the defeats of both kingdoms,
Cyrus became Cyrus the Great

and his descendants built
a new capital here at Susa.

The Elamites were now subjects
of a new empire,

the Persian Empire.

The centuries have been
unkind to what Cyrus

and his successors built here.

Susa eventually disappeared
into the sands of time

until it re-emerged after
archaeologists

started digging here in 1850.

What they discovered here was vast.

I want to give you an idea
of exactly how vast

those buildings were.

I know what you're thinking.

This building looks
remarkably well preserved.

Is it a fortress?

Is it a palace?

This is the Chateau de Suse.

The chateau was built in the 1890s

on the orders of
a French archaeologist,

Jean-Marie Jacques de Morgan.

Morgan needed somewhere secure
for his excavation team

and their finds while they
worked on the Susa site.

He thought what could be safer
than a French castle?

And he decided to use the ancient
bricks from all around here

at Susa and from the ziggurat
at Chogha Zanbil

to build this place

from 15 different buildings
up to 3,000 years old.

And, once you know, you start seeing
it everywhere, like this one.

These are bits of glazed ceramic
probably from a temple or a palace.

It's not just glazed bricks.

If you look carefully, many bear
the language of cuneiform.

From the Elamite capital of Susa,

to the city built
by Cyrus to replace it,

right through to
the early Islamic period,

this single building contains
the span of Persian ancient history.

The bricks have all ended up
in this pastiche

of a French medieval fortress,

a fitting symbol of how
colonial-era archaeologists

saw themselves as superior
protectors of civilisation,

while desecrating
ancient sites like Susa.

So, if you can, put the
archaeological vandalism aside

for a moment, imagine
the palaces and temples

once constructed from this enormous
quantity of bricks.

It would have looked
truly monumental.

Susa was once one of the Persian
Empire's greatest capital cities.

After Susa,

Cyrus the Great conquered
the city of Babylon in 539 BC.

And we know this because of
what archaeologists found there,

the world's earliest example
of political spin.

This is known as the Cyrus
Cylinder and it's an exact copy,

but the original is kept
in the British Museum.

And, here, inscribed in all
these tiny lines of cuneiform,

is a piece of propaganda,

a kind of compact trophy,
which describes how Cyrus

overcame his enemies, not through
violence, but through showing

tolerance towards
the people and their gods.

"My vast army marched
into Babylon in peace.

"I did not permit anyone
to frighten the people

"and sought the welfare
of Babylon...

"..and all its sacred places".

So, this is very clearly
some Persian spin.

It was a conquest,

but presented very much as
a liberation of peoples.

And it's come to affect how,
for generations,

we've regarded Cyrus the Great.

We absolutely bought in
to his propaganda campaign.

The Cyrus Cylinder is one
of the world's earliest examples

of propaganda, but Cyrus' policy
of tolerance did have an impact

on different religious populations -

one in particular, the Jews.

The Jews who were brought to Babylon
by the previous Babylonian king

were allowed to go back
to their homeland.

So, Cyrus enjoys a particularly
important position,

both for us Iranians
as well as for Christians

and also the Jewish people.

Susa is one of
the world's oldest cities.

People have lived here
for over 6,000 years.

And it was not only home
to Persia's great kings,

but to one of the Bible's
greatest heroes.

Not far from the chateau can
be found this unusual structure.

It is or is believed to be
the tomb of Daniel,

famous for his stay in the lion's
den in the Old Testament.

Jews and Muslims honour Daniel
as a virtuous man,

who maintained his
religious beliefs throughout

the long years of exile in Babylon,

living to see the liberation
that Cyrus promised on his cylinder.

As a child, one of my favourite
stories in the Bible

was that of
Daniel in the lion's den.

And here in Susa is where he died.

And this is his tomb.

And it's incredible
to find that out.

This place has become a site
of pilgrimage for Muslims,

for Christians, and for Jews.

And, after they were freed by Cyrus,
many Jews chose to remain

and are still here today.

It may come as a surprise to learn
that the largest community of Jews

in the Middle East outside of Israel
is here in Iran.

So, what happened to Cyprus
and this first Persian Empire?

To find out, I'm going to travel
many miles east

into the deserts of central
Iran to Pasargaede.

Pasargaede was where
Cyrus made his capital.

Now all that survives is his tomb,
remarkably modest for the founder

of what was the biggest empire
the world had ever seen.

The Persian Empire, at its height,
stretched from

Greece to the Indus,

from the Occis through to
what we would now know as Libya.

I mean, this is vast
in the ancient world.

Iranian visitors flock here,
particularly during the holidays,

to see the tomb of the king, who not
only founded the Persian Empire,

but its people's sense
of national identity.

The tomb of Cyrus lay at the centre
of a huge, formal, walled garden

known in Persian as a pardis,
from which we get the word paradise.

And, although it's hard to
imagine right now,

this was once surrounded by
lush greenery and flowing waters -

a statement of Cyrus'
civilising power

against the wild desert beyond.

A clue to what Cyrus' great garden
once looked like can be found

in the familiar design of
Persian carpets today.

Many are based on
his garden's layout.

Imagine Cyrus' tomb in the centre,

surrounded by statues of
fantastic birds and beasts.

Qanats supplied water
for the ponds, flowers and trees,

which provided shade
on hot, summer days.

His gardens have long
since perished.

But Cyrus did attempt
to secure his family's legacy.

He carved a simple inscription

in three different
forms of cuneiform...

..Elamite, Babylonian,
and a brand-new script

named after this new
Persian dynasty...

..the Achaemenids.

The words are very simple.

"I, Cyrus the King, an Achaemenid."

This was a declaration that
Cyrus the Great's vast new empire

was under the rule
of the Achaemenids...

..a Persian royal dynasty.

Cyrus the Great may have forged
the first Persian Empire,

but, in 515 BC, it was
his successor, Darius I,

who built
the jewel in its crown...

..the legendary city of Persepolis.

Darius was the greatest royal
architect of his dynasty.

Even in its ruined state,

the imposing gateways,

monumental columns,
and exquisite reliefs

leave you in no doubt about the
message Darius wanted to project.

His empire heralded
a new world order.

Darius was also famous
for many firsts.

He dug the first Suez Canal,

introduced standardised
weights and measures,

and coinage, too.

It was this administrative genius

that earned him the title
Darius the Great.

Archaeologists have found
tablets here at Persepolis,

showing careful record keeping
and rates of exchange

for payments in kind.

To his subjects who admired
this administrative flair,

their Emperor was known as
Darius the Shopkeeper.

Darius didn't bother
to fortify Persepolis.

He didn't need to.

All his enemies had been defeated.

And here are the enemies his
dynasty had overcome,

all subject to the Persian King.

A real highlight of Persepolis
is this magnificent frieze

which shows 23 subject peoples
of the Persian Empire

queuing up to bring their
tributes to the King.

In incredible detail
on their faces and costumes,

you can see they come
from everywhere,

from southeastern Europe,
to down here,

these five are from Sind in
India, modern Pakistan,

bringing gold dust
and spices and battle-axes.

And over there, there
are figures from Nubia,

bringing elephant tusks
and a giraffe.

Persepolis was a masterpiece
of imperial architecture.

And you might assume Darius
exploited a vast army of slaves

to build it.

But archaeologists
made a surprising discovery.

There were lots of people
working at Persepolis.

We also have tablets from Persepolis
which reveal a lot of interesting

information about the workmen -

the salaries, how they
were paid in kind.

And also women worked at Persepolis.

We know that, for example, women
were overseeing some particular

parts of the structure.

And, in one case, one woman gives
birth to twins and she receives

a special allowance for maternity.

And, so, it's all very interesting

how he produced
this enormous palace.

The imposing entrance
to Persepolis is where King Xerxes,

Darius' successor,

inscribed a message that left
every visitor in no doubt

about the power and
ambition of his empire.

It reads, "I am Xerxes
the Great King,

"King of Kings,

"King of the lands of many people,

"King of this great Earth,
far and wide."

Xerxes I called this
his Gateway Of All Nations.

And, for anyone arriving at
Persepolis, there is a real sense

of the whole world
passing through here,

from the clearly Assyrian figures
guarding each side of the gateway,

to the classical columns
that you could recognise,

to the graffiti on the walls

from travellers coming
through here from India,

people from the British Empire,
from America, from Europe.

All these travellers who came
through here

from the 19th century onwards,

for them, Persepolis must
have been their first gateway

to understanding Persia.

It wasn't just architecture
that projected

Achaemenid wealth and culture.

These beautiful, decorative
objects made of solid gold

are 2,500 years old.

This is the apex of sophistication.

We have objects
of gold drinking vessels,

kind of like a sangria jug,
I suppose,

in which you pour the wine
directly into your mouth.

And we have cups that sit
absolutely perfectly in balance

in the palm of your hand,
in...chased in gold and silver.

We have jewellery upon jewellery
of all the most semi-precious stones

that Persia could pile together.

Tales of the city's untold wealth
grew in their telling.

And, soon, Persepolis became
an object of Greek desire.

The decision not to fortify
Persepolis proved to be its undoing.

The white marks on this pillar
are a clue to what happened next.

When limestone is subjected
to intense heat, it turns white.

In 330 BC, the Macedonians,
led by Alexander the Great,

invaded Persia and burnt
Persepolis to the ground.

Why did Alexander
destroy Persepolis?

It wasn't about the wealth.

The Treasurer had offered him
the city's riches

and Alexander spent
two months looting them.

He burned Persepolis to the ground
because it was a shrine

and the mother city of
Persian culture.

Alexander wanted to obliterate
Persian resistance and identity

once and for all.

With the destruction of Persepolis,

it was as if Alexander wanted
to completely erase the memory

of Darius and the kings
who once lived here.

And he succeeded.

They vanished entirely from history.

Centuries later, when visitors
wandered the ruins

and encountered statues of strange,
fantastical beasts,

they imagined that mythical kings,
not the Achaemenids,

had ruled the Persian Empire.

By the 10th century,
Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi,

the master storyteller
I met in Tehran,

collected the tales
of these fairy-tale kings

and put them in
a book called the Shahnameh.

Ferdowsi's mythical version
of Persia's history

doesn't credit Darius
for building Persepolis,

but this godlike king
called Jamshid.

So, who is Jamshid?

SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

According to the Shahnameh,

Jamshid is responsible
for the creation of Nowruz,

the unique Persian New Year
celebrated to this day

to mark the start of spring
at the end of March.

There's even a theory
that Persepolis was built

to celebrate this annual festival.

All over Iran, families set
out a table like this

filled with seven symbols
of prosperity and renewal,

including fruit, money, and, well,

the wine's been replaced by vinegar
since the Islamic conquest,

but Nowruz is Jamshid's
enduring legacy.

Jamshid was one of the first
mythical kings in the Shahnameh.

He was responsible for many
miraculous inventions,

including New Year, and he was able
to do this, Ferdowsi tells us,

because he was possessed by
a special quality called farr.

Farr could be described as a light.

It is God given.

It comes from above.

Radiance streams from the ruler.

Now, that's a metaphor,
it didn't actually happen.

But when you see it in
in the visual arts,

it's often shown
in the form of a halo.

And we understand that,

we have a halo around sacred
figures in Christianity.

Until recently, this symbol
at Persepolis, a winged man,

was believed to be a representation
of the deity worshipped

by the Achaemenids,
the Zoroastrian God, Ahura Mazda,

the Wise Lord, the Lord of Wisdom.

Scholars now believe that this
figure might actually be a visual

representation of farr,
farr made flesh.

But this definition of kingship,

a king who rules with God's
blessing, is double edged.

The king with farr rules well,

but the king who loses farr rules
badly and can rightly be deposed.

When Jamshid became arrogant
and started to present

himself as the supreme power,
God in a way...

..he was punished and he was
punished in the way that

the glory, or the farr, flew away
from him in the shape of a bird.

And this says something,
I think, about the Persian way

of thinking of history.

It's ever changing.
It's always cyclic.

There is rise and fall,
there is rise and fall.

It would be nearly 2,000 years

before archaeologists
excavated Persepolis.

After deciphering
the cuneiform language,

Darius and the Achaemenids

were restored to their
rightful place in history.

Just a few kilometres away, there's
another site that tells a similar

story, but with a surprise twist.

This necropolis was where

four Achaemenid kings

were brought for burial.

Their huge tombs are cut
into the cliff face.

This is Darius' tomb...

..the king who built Persepolis.

Darius' hand is raised in
recognition of his own imperial

farr which hovers before him.

The inscription reads,

"If now you wonder how many
countries did King Darius hold,

"look at the sculptures
and you will know."

If you count them, there are 26 men.

But, like at Persepolis,

the original events
depicted here were forgotten

and replaced with stories
from the Shahnameh.

Once again, real history
was replaced by mythology

courtesy of Ferdowsi
and his Shahnameh.

In the way Persepolis
was actually founded by Darius,

but attributed to King Jamshid,

so this burial site was credited
to another fantasy hero.

His carving is to be found
just beneath Darius' tomb.

He's called Rostam.

That's Rostam there
on horseback, on the right,

a warrior, a hero of
incredible strength,

a kind of Persian Hercules.

With his great horse, Rakhsh,

Rostam rages through the first
half of the Shahnameh,

defeating dragons, demons,
and all the enemies of Iran.

He may not have much up top,
but he's got plenty of muscle.

You can really rely on him,

so, he becomes a kind of
foundation stone for the Shahnameh.

And the reason he can do that
is that he just doesn't die.

So, his worst enemy is
the White Div-e,

the absolute incandescent
essence of evil.

Killing the White Div-e is
killing the evil in all of us.

It is a straightforward
moral victory.

Many Iranians know this
site as Naqsh-e Rostam,

the Place of Rostam.

With cowering enemies kneeling
before his powerful horse,

this figure looks every inch
like the mythical hero of old.

It's easy to see why people came
to believe these carvings portrayed

the exploits of Rostam, but none
of them represent him at all.

In fact, they date from 500 years
after Alexander the Great destroyed

Persepolis and
the Achaemenid Empire.

So, if this figure
isn't Rostam, who is he?

He is in fact another real
Persian king, Shapur I.

And his story is to be found
in the closing pages

of the Shahnameh.

The first half of the book
is a sort of mythic preface,

where dynasties like the Achaemenids
and the Parthians,

who followed them,
are largely left out.

It's only towards the end
where we encounter real history

and real kings like Shapur I,

who's from a Persian dynasty
of rulers called the Sasanians.

So, this is the next kind of
indigenous Iranian dynasty,

which Ferdowsi clearly
sees as a good thing,

because they really are
Iranian to their fingertips.

So, Ferdowsi spins this really
interesting web of stories

around the historical figures
of this Sasanian kings.

So, now myth and legend finally
gives way to history proper.

I'm heading into the Zagros
Mountains, in the southwest of Iran,

to find out more about
the Sasanians.

It's an hour's climb.

But what's hidden there,
I'm told, is unmissable.

And it is.

Seven metres high, chiselled
out of a single stalagmite,

this is the very same king who
was carved into the rock face

I saw earlier.

He was crowned in the year 240 AD,

Shapur I.

He looks like a God, doesn't he,
with his crown, his flowing locks?

You can see that strong
arm on his weapon belt,

staring out at the landscape.

But this is no God.

Shapur I is making a statement and
setting out his Sasanian dynasty

to rule Persia for
centuries to come.

In the Shahnameh, Ferdowsi talks
about him as this great king.

He is the very embodiment of farr,

the divine right to rule
appointed by God.

Like the pupil of an eye,

Shapur stands at
the mouth of the cave,

looking out to cross his empire...

..determined posterity will never
forget what he achieved.

Shapur ruled for over 30 years.

He built many cities
during his reign,

but perhaps the most remarkable was
the city he named after himself...

..Bishapur.

Unlike Persepolis,
very little has been excavated.

But these lone commemorative columns
bear witness to what was once here.

Written in Sasanian script
is the declaration

of Shapur's brand-new city.

Under the Sasanians, Zoroastrianism
became Iran's official religion.

Above ground, the crumbling
remains of a fire temple

where an eternal flame once burned.

But below ground can be found
a temple of quite another kind.

The most intriguing aspect
of this underground temple

are the four corridors that run
all the way around it,

with these channels clearly
for flowing water.

And there's a direct
link to the river,

which is why this site is
thought to be sacred

to the water goddess Anahita.

This silver gilt plate
absolutely captures the magnificence

of Sasanian craftsmanship.

It's the goddess Anahita, swimming
surrounded by male attendants,

draped in ornate jewellery
with her hair twisted into braids

and with her swelling hips very much
a symbol of fertility, too.

It's a glimpse into an ancient
Persia where women were worshipped.

Even in its ruinous state, you
can sense the vaulting ambition,

the unshakeable
confidence of Shapur.

But his greatest achievement
wasn't building cities.

It was this.

Recorded in stone in a gorge nearby,

the epic saga of Shapur's
triumphs over Rome.

In this remarkable relief,

you can see his victories
against three Roman emperors.

First, he's trampling
on the body of Gordian here.

He's also taking a truce
from Philip the Arab.

And, behind, he's taking
the Emperor Valerian prisoner.

And, as if to add insult
to injury, above it all,

a Roman cherub handing him
his symbol of victory.

But, unlike Gordian,
Valerian was taken alive.

According to the Shahnameh,
this is what happened to Valerian.

"Shapur flattened
the evil Emperor's pavilion.

"His men set fires on all sides
throughout the Roman camp

"and the sky seemed to come
down to the Earth.

"They split his ears with a knife
and bored a hole through his nose,

"in which they put a piece of wood

"of the kind by which
a camel is led."

But this is Ferdowsi
sidestepping real history.

It's true that Valerian
was taken prisoner

and brought here to Bishapur.

But, after that, well,
Roman historians have come up

with a variety of grisly outcomes,
including the possibility

that he was flayed alive
and his skin stuffed with straw.

But it seems more likely that
he was treated well by Shapur.

Still, Valerian never
went back to Rome.

After his capture, Valerian's
legionaries were soon put to work

building Shapur's new city.

When Bishapur was excavated
in the 19th century,

the city's surviving chambers
were found decorated in mosaics,

like these, in the Roman style.

And when they weren't making
mosaics, the legionaries were set

to work improving roads, dams
and building bridges like this one

400 miles to the north.

A testament to Roman engineering,

much of the bridge still stands,

its crumbling arches
a magnet for locals

who sit on the river's edge to relax
and enjoy the warm summer evenings.

This is one of those places
where I really feel Persia,

ancient and modern, meet.

Iranian families picnicking,
paddling, speed boating

in the river against
the ruins of Valerian's bridge.

Many kings followed Shapur

and these rock reliefs nearby
depict his successors.

I know what you're thinking.

They all look remarkably similar.

From bronze sculptures,
to coins, to stone effigies,

each king was
portrayed Shapur style,

a crown set upon flowing locks.

The Sasanians were masters
of marketing themselves

as Persia's new rulers.

But they had enemies.

In the north and east, tribal
warlords, the Huns and Turks,

began to threaten
the Persian Sasanian Empire.

To protect their borders,
the Sasanians embarked

on their biggest-ever building
project - a great wall.

It's long since disappeared,
but the outline of the forts

that defended it have survived.

I'm standing on what remains
of the Great Wall of Gorgan,

one of the greatest human
defensive walls ever constructed.

It's on Iran's northern border
with what is now Turkmenistan.

It's 1,000 years older
than the Great Wall of China.

And, at 200km in length,

it's far longer than any wall
the Romans ever built.

Built in the 5th century, the wall
once stretched from the mountains

on Persia's eastern borders,
to the Caspian Sea.

With a water-filled ditch
dug in front,

this was a walled fortress
protected by nearly 40 forts

manned by a garrison of soldiers

that some archaeologists have
estimated to be around 30,000 men.

This mighty wall crossed plains,

hilltops and, in places,
deep gorges.

It was an extraordinary
feat of engineering.

Most of the wall had fallen prey
to looters over the centuries.

So hardly anything remains.

But, if you know where to look,

there are sections
that have survived.

Here, the wall crosses a river,
and I've come to take a closer look

at the original brick structure

where archaeologists
are hard at work.

Walking across
the farmland up above,

I had no idea what I would see.

Now I've come down and I realise

I've walked down through levels
of centuries in history,

there's six metres of topsoil
I can now see that's accumulated

over the remains of what is
obviously a well-constructed

military dam, and this
fortification of real bricks.

You can see it stretching out,
turning into the bridge there.

And it would have gone all
the way up over those mountains.

And I just find it incredible
to think this was the frontier

of the Persian Empire, stretching
for 200 miles east and west.

And all that remains are
a few, tantalising fragments.

I've come to meet
archaeologist Dr Umrani to find out

more about its construction.

SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

The Gorgan wall is testimony
to the engineering skills

and military organisation
of the Sasanian Empire.

And, for 200 years, it kept
the Huns and Turks at bay.

But, ultimately, the empire depended
on the ability of its kings,

rather than a wall, to defend it.

No dynasty could last forever.

And the Sasanians were no exception.

According to Ferdowsi, the last few
were a decadent bunch of kings,

whose cruel and evil deeds
led to the decline and fall

of the Persian Empire.

Ferdowsi's aim in the stories of
the Sasanian kings is to show again

that nothing is everlasting
in Iran's history,

that kings can rule with farr and be
aware of themselves and be aware

of their relationship
to a higher power,

but how transient that can be.

The last years of the Sasanian
dynasty were marked by years

of civil war in which four kings
and two queens

ruled for no more
than a few months each

before their lives
ended in violence.

And, when they weren't fighting each
other, the Sasanians were kept busy

guarding their northern and
western borders against attack.

The sheer length and scale
of the Gorgan Wall demonstrates

just how big a threat they faced.

In one sense, the Sasanian kings
were right to build this great wall.

There was a tribal, nomadic
army on the march.

A storm was heading this way.

But it was to come from the West.

They'd built this barrier
in the wrong part of the country.

At the beginning of the 7th century,

far away in the Arabian Peninsula,

a trader named Muhammad
began to receive

what were believed to be a series
of revelations from God.

The revelations ultimately
formed the basis of the Koran

and a small but radical movement
would rise to change Persia

and the ancient world.

Islam was born.

SINGING IN ARABIC

# Allahu Akbar

# Allahu Akbar. #

It was a powerful idea, so powerful
that, in a matter of decades,

the Islamic crusading armies
decisively defeated

the Sasanian imperial forces.

The Arab invasion would
be the greatest threat

the Persians had ever faced.

And the story of how they
confronted it echoes to this day.

Next time, I'm going back to
find out

how the Arabs conquered Persia...

..a conquest that was more
than a confrontation

between two, mighty armies.

It was a clash between
two, powerful cultures.

The Arabs brought
with them a new culture,

a new language and a new religion.

But, despite subjugation
and conversion,

Persian culture flourished.

The story of how Persia survived
is one of the great chapters

in Iran's history.