Persepolis << puhr SEHP uh lihs >> was a capital of ancient Persia . King Darius I of the Achaemenid Empire (also called the Persian Empire) built Persepolis about 500 B.C. in ancient Persis, a mountainous region of what is now southwestern Iran . Darius and his successors constructed large stone and mud-brick palaces in the capital, which became the royal ceremonial center for the religious holiday of the New Year. Every year at this festival, the king would renew his divine right as king, and representatives of all the peoples within the Persian Empire would bring him gifts. Visitors can see a representation of the procession of New Year’s gift givers carved in stone on two staircases leading to the king’s Audience Hall. 
The Macedonian king Alexander the Great seized Persepolis after defeating Darius III in the Battle of Gaugamela (also called the Battle of Arbela) in what is now northern Iraq in 331 B.C. Alexander had Darius’s palace destroyed in revenge for Persian attacks on the Greek mainland in the 400’s B.C. After Alexander’s death in 323 B.C., the region of Persis remained important under the Seleucids ; the Parthians ; and the Sasanians , who ruled Persia until the middle of the A.D. 600’s. However, Estakhr, a few miles north, replaced Persepolis as the seat of government in the early 200’s B.C. 
Excavations of Persepolis in the 1930’s uncovered two important administrative archives (collections of documents) known as the Persepolis Fortification Tablets and the Persepolis Treasury Tablets, based on their location in the palace complex. These archives became central to understanding the Achaemenid royal administration.
