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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B5. [Istanbul 2004 
  
As an example, to erect the Persepolis as a symbol of the glory 
of Achaemenids to be visited by historians and personalities of 
all over the world and seen by the future generations of the 
empire, various expertise, material and a management of high 
level were necessary which are certified in 30000 inscribed clay 
tablets, found recently in the ruins of Susa, Dariush gives a list 
of materials, experts, talents and the regions from where they 
are collected: * ... cedar wood from Assyria, gold from 
Bacteria, agat from Sogdia, ... goldsmith from Media, masons 
from Babylon, ". All were used in the construction of 
Persepolis (Sharp, 1997). The workers were paid regular wages 
including silver, lambs, and so on. This deed will be 
remembered for ever (Figure 3). 
  
Figure 3. The Gate of Nations 
To fix an excellent management and to have an exact 
communication system between different parts of the empire, 
Dariush arranged a precise calendar and set the first day of the 
year coincide with the first day of spring, a tradition that is still 
present in Iran and is celebrated as Now- Rooz (the New Day) 
which is the official new year of the Iranians. During this ritual 
feast, delegates of 28 nations under the rule of Dariush, became 
the guests of emperor in Persepolis: May Ahura-Mazda 
Bless the King of the Kings * (Figure 4). 
After 220 years glorious government of Achaemenids, in spite 
of Dariush wish that * ... no malevolent hand injure Persia “, 
Alexander of Macedonia arrived in 330 B.C. and put the ritual 
city of Persepolis in flame and the magnificent Persian empire 
became part of history and myths (Frye, 1963). After the 
occupation of Alexander, a high-level civilization was buried. It 
is admitted that most of our modern ideas about open, free, and 
progressing society, were realized in the Achaemenid 
Civilization (Kock, 1998). 
  
Figure 4. The Gift-Bearers in Now-Rooz 
OLD WRITINGS 
After 19 victorious battles in the first years, Dariush needed to 
give a report of his victories to the nations all over his empire. 
Furthermore, it was necessary to transmit his commands 
everywhere. So he immediately started to use the Elamite and 
then Babylonian writing style (Cameron, 1963). But it was not 
meritorious to use the writing of the nations under his rule. 
Hence, he ordered experts to create new and easier writing 
called Old Persian (Figure 15) and afterwards all official 
documents were written in Old Persian using cuneiform and 
then translated into Elamite and Babylonian (Figure 8). 
BISOTUN INSCRIPTIONS 
The Persian empire was forgotten for more than 2000 years in 
such a way that people believed that the wonderful Persepolis 
was built by Jamshid, the Persian epic, who had the demons 
under his rule. That is why it is called Takhte- Jamshid (the 
Throne of Jamshid). Even Sassanids did not mentioned them in 
their documents. There is also no name of Cyrus or Dariush in 
the Persian national and popular epic of Ferdowsi * Shah 
Nameh" (the Book of Kings). 
From the beginning of his kingdom, Dariush started to build his 
special political capital in Susa and buried under the 
foundations of his palace the stone tablets upon which all details 
of his operations were recorded (Perrot, 1981). A fter the 
invasion of the Macedonians, Alexander transferred all treasures 
and precious objects to Greece by some 10000 horses and 5000 
camels. But, some important treasures survived that calamity to 
be witness for the next generations. Without these information it 
would be quite impossible to discover the mysteries of the 
ancient Persian empire and the nations under its rule. One of 
these remaining objects is a set of tens of thousands of clay and