2.500 years after it was built, the ruines of Persepoli site, the greatest and impressive persian Achaemenid kings residence, sacked and burned by Alexander the Great army, shaken by earthquakes and eroded by rain and scouring winds, looted by men, are still fascinating the visitors.
Darius and his Achaemenid successors called it Parsa, the name of the surrounding province. The Greeks however called the city Perseptolis, meaning “destroyer of cities”, in bitter tribute to the destruction brought by Persians to Greece. From that name has come Persepolis, a corruption of the Greek, by which the citadel has commonly, though incorrectly, been known ever since.