The Secrets of Engineering and the Splendor of the Achaemenid Empire | How Persepolis Survived 2,500 Years

The splendor was not to last. In 330 BCE, Alexander of Macedon, having defeated Darius III, entered Persepolis. Accounts differ as to why he ordered its destruction: some speak of drunken vengeance for Xerxes’ burning of Athens, others of a calculated attempt to extinguish Persian identity. Whatever the motive, the flames consumed cedar beams, melted gilded ornaments, and left scars still visible on stone surfaces.