1. Group 1
Culture and Built Forms-II
Aparna
Singh
Manish Aditi
Lohia Goyal
B.Arch.
2nd year
Sec-B
Nishant Malika
Bhateja Gupta
Priyankita
Pant

2. Contents
The Island of Crete
Minoan Civilization
The hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Lighthouse of Alexandria
Parthian Empire
The Library of Alexandria

3. The Island of
Crete

4. Crete is the largest island in
Greece and the second largest
in the eastern Mediterranean
Sea (after Cyprus). It is
located in the southern part of
the Aegean Sea separating the
Aegean from the Libyan Sea.

5. PREHISHTORIC PERIOD
600BC-2600 BC
The earliest traces of human habitation in Crete go back to the
Neolithic age. The first inhabitants of the island lived in caves,
which later became places of worship and in houses with stone
foundations and brick walls. These people were farmers and
shepherds. They used simple tools and utensils made of animal
bones and stone, many of which have been turned up during
archaeological excavations.
We know very little about their religious beliefs. It is
hypothesized that they worshipped Goea, the goddess of
fertility. Many figurines showing this female form have been
found in Crete and throughout the eastern Mediterranean
basin. For many centuries afterwards Mother was the most
important symbol for the cultures of the Mediterranean lands.

6. Minoan Civilization
Around 1700 BC, a highly sophisticated culture grew up
on Crete: the Minoans. What they thought, what stories they
told, how they narrated their history, are all lost to us. All we
have left are their palaces, their incredibly developed visual art,
and their records
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that
arose on the island of Crete.
It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century
through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur
Evans. Will Durant referred to it as "the first link in the
European chain”.

7. GEOGRAPHY

8. GEOGRAPHY
Crete is a mountainous island with natural harbors located
midway between Turkey, Egypt and Greece. On the island, the
climate is comfortable and the soil fertile; as an island, it was
isolated from the mainland of Asia Minor, the Middle East,
and Egypt . There are signs of earthquake damage at many
Minoan sites and clear signs of both uplifting of land and
submersion of coastal sites due to tectonic processes all along
the coasts .

9. CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY
 Rather than associate absolute calendar dates for the
Minoan period, archaeologists use two systems of relative
chronology.
The first, created by Evans
•Early Minoan period(EM) 2,600 B.C.- 2,000 B.C.
•Middle Minoan period(MM) 2,000 B.C. - 1,580 B.C.
•Late Minoan period (LM) 1,580 B.C. - 1,100 B.C.
Another proposed by the Greek archaeologist Nicolas Platon,
is based on the development of the architectural complexes
known as "palaces" Minoan period into Prepalatial,
Protopalatial, Neopalatial, and Post-palatial periods.

10. TRADE
 None of the earliest great cultures of the ancient world were
seafaring cultures, so Crete was spared the great power
struggles that troubled other ancient cultures.
 However, as an island, resources were limited. As the
population began to thrive, it also began to increase, and it is
evident that the resources of the island became increasingly
insufficient to handle the increased population. So the
Cretans improvised.
 Some migrated, populating other islands in the Aegean Sea. In
doing so, they took their growing civilization with them and
spread Minoan culture, religion, and government all over
the Aegean Sea. For this reason, the Minoan culture is also
called the "Aegean Palace civilization."
 The Cretans who remained on Crete turned to other economic
pursuits in particular, they turned to trade. Crete became the
central exporter of wine, oil, jewelry, and highly crafted
works; in turn, they became importers of raw materials and
food. In the process they built the first major navy in the
world; its primary purpose, however, was trade, not war or
conquest.

11. The "saffron-gatherers, saffron crocus
flowers, represented as small red
tufts, are gathered by two women
Minoans in Egypt

12. CLOTHING
 Minoan men wore loincloths and kilts.
 Women wore robes that had short sleeves and
layered flounced skirts. These were open to the navel allowing
their breasts to be left exposed, perhaps during ceremonial
occasions. Women also had the option of wearing a strapless
fitted bodice.
 The patterns emphasized symmetrical geometric design.

13. RELIGION
 Minoan sacred symbols include the Bull,
Bull's Horns of Consecration, Double Axe,
Pillar, Snakes, Sun, and Tree.
 There are numerous representations of
goddesses, which leads to the conclusion
that the Cretans were polytheistic, while
others argue that these represent SNAKE
manifestations of the one goddess. GODDESS
 The most popular goddess seems to be
the "Snake Goddess," who has snakes
entwined on her body or in her hands. Since
the figurine is only found in houses and in
small shrines in the palaces, it is believed
that she is some sort of domestic goddess
or goddess of the house.
DEITY-MOTHER
GODDESS

14. MINOAN SACRIFICE with a slaughtered bull in the
middle, two terrified animals below him and a woman
offering on the right. Notice the double axe and horns of
consecration next to the altar.

15.  It seems to be the first "leisure" society in existence, in
which a large part of human activity focused on leisure
activities, such as sports. In fact, the Cretans seem to have
been as sports addicted as modern people; the most
popular sports were boxing and bull-jumping. Women
actively participated in both of these sports.
BULL JUMPING BOXIN
G

16.  Concentration of wealth played a large
role in the structure of society.
Multiroom constructions were
discovered in even the ‘poor’ areas of
town, revealing a social equality and
even distribution of wealth.
 Cretan states of the first half of the
second millennium BC
were bureaucratic monarchies.
 While the government was dominated
by priests and the monarch seemed to
have some religious functions, the
principle role of the monarch seemed to
KNOSSOS MURAL, THE SO
be that of "chief entrepreneur," or CALLED 'PRINCE WITH THE
better yet. LILIES' OR 'PRIEST KING'
 Minoans had a written language known FRESCO (KNOSSOS, C. 1500 BC)
as Linear A.

17. MINOAN ART
 The immense concentration of wealth in such a small population
led to an explosion of visual arts, as well. Unlike the bulk of the
ancient world, the Minoans developed a visual art culture that
seems to have been solely oriented around visual pleasure.
 The Minoans seem to have been the first ancient culture to
produce art for its beauty rather than its function
 The Minoans, however, not only decorated their palaces,
they decorated them with art. To walk through a Minoan
palace was to walk through room after room of splendid, wall-
sized paintings. Minoan art frequently involves unimportant,
trivial details of everyday life, such as a cat hunting a bird, or
an octopus, or representations of sports events (rather than
battles, or political events).
 The Minoan art is generally in the form of frescoes and
ceramics. Ceramics were characterized by linear patterns
of spirals, triangles, curved lines, crosses, fishbone motifs, and
like. In the Middle Minoan period naturalistic designs such
as fish, squid, birds, and lilies were common.

18. FRESCOES

19. CERAMICS

20. ARCHITECTURE
 The Minoan cities were connected with stone-paved roads, formed
from blocks cut with bronze saws. Streets were drained and water
and sewer facilities were available to the upper class,
through claypipes.
 Minoan buildings often had flat tiled roofs; plaster, wood,
or flagstone floors, and stood two to three stories high. Typically the
lower walls were constructed of stone and rubble, and the upper
walls of mudbrick. Ceiling timbers held up the roofs.
 The materials used in construction varied; could include
sandstone, gypsum, or limestone. Equally, building techniques could
also vary between different constructions; some palaces used ashlar
masonry while others used roughly hewn megalithic blocks.
 The palaces and towns of the Cretans seem to have only
minor defensive structures or forts. The presence of only a small
amount of defensive works in the archaeological record leads us to a
tentative conclusion: the Minoans throughout much of their history
were relatively secure from attack. This conclusion helps to explain
every other aspect of Minoan history: their concentration of
economic resources on mercantilism, their generous
distribution of wealth among their people, and, unfortunately,
their downfall.

21. THOLOS TOMBS
For centuries the Minoans used Tholos Tombs and sacred
caves, along with pithoi(storage jars) and larnakes(ash-
chest) for burial of their dead.
MINOAN VILLAS
The Late Minoan I villa at Ayia Triada in Crete functioned as
part of a larger administrative system. It was the center of
an estate. Produce and other items from this estate were
collected and dispersed as rations and wages to local workers
and as tax payments to the palace of Phaistos. Neopalatial
Crete was organized into an extensive system of such manorial
estates which contributed to the palatial centers.

22. MINOAN PALACES
 They provided a forum for gathering
and celebrations, while at the same
time they offered storage for the
crops, and workshops for the artists.
 They were built over time to occupy
low hills at strategic places around
the island in a manner so complex THE PALACE AT KNOSSOS
U SHAPE PLAN WITH A CENTRAL
that they resembled labyrinths to COURTYARD
outside visitors.
 There were expanded drainage
systems, irrigation, aqueducts, and
deep wells that provided fresh water
to the inhabitants.
 They were laced with impressive
interior and exterior staircases, light
wells, massive columns, storage RUINS
magazines, and gathering outdoor
places -- the precursor to ancient
theaters.

23. DOWNFALL
 The island of Santorin, 70 miles north of Crete to the
wealthy Minoan seaport of Akrotiri, a place where the wall
paintings discovered portray their landscape with happy
animals and farmers harvesting saffron. But the Minoans
had built their prosperous city on one of the most dangerous
islands on earth, next to the volcano Thera. Around 1600,
B.C., Akrotiri was shaken by a violent earthquake.
Some time later, an eruption occurred. The Theran
eruption was one of largest in human history — blasting
more than 10 million tons of ash, gas, and rock 25 miles
into the atmosphere. Incredibly, despite Crete’s close
proximity to the volcano, the debris from Thera largely
missed the major Minoan towns.50 years later the
civilzation was wiped out.
 Earthquakes and fires destroyed Knossos and the other
palaces and the towns were deserted.

24. HANGING GARDENS of BABYLON
This probably the most romantic and
poetic wonder of the world is not only
long gone, but its existence is also
up for dispute.
The lack of documentation of its
subsistence in the chroinicles of
Babylonian history makes many
doubt if the wonderful gardens ever
pleased the eye of a Human or were
just a figment of ancient poets and
novelists.

25. Location: City State of Babylon (Modern Iraq)
Built: Around 600 BC
Function: Royal Gardens
Destroyed: Earthquake, 2nd Century BC
Size: Height probably 80 ft. (24m)
Made of: Mud brick waterproofed with lead.
Other: Only wonder whose archaeological remains cannot be
verified.

26. WHO BUILD
There are two equally credible theories
about who build the Hanging Gardens of
Babylon, they are assumed to be the
work either of semilegendary Queen
Sammu-ramat (Greek Semiramis), the
Assyrian queen who reigned from 810 to
783 BC, or of King Nebuchadrezzar II, the
king of the Babylonian Empire, who
reigned c. 605 BC – 562 BC.
Though there are no compelling
arguments about the credibility of any of
the assumptions, the hanging Gardens of
Babylon are often called the Hanging
Gardens of Semiramis.

27. FIRST POSSIBLE BUILDER , SEMIRAMIS
A few words about the first possible builder,
Semiramis: Through the centuries the legend of
Semiramis attracted not only the attention of
Greek historians, but she also was the muse of
novelists, poets and other storytellers. Great
warrior queens in history have been called the
Semiramis of their times.
A “gossip” around her name would have made a
beautiful yellow press headline – “Semiramis is
said to have had a long string of one-night-stands
with handsome soldiers”.
Another “rumor” may become an inspiration for
horror film makers – they say that she had each
lover killed after a night of passion, so that her
power would not be threatened by a man who
presumed on their relationship.

28. THE OTHER SUPPOSED BUILDER– KING
NEBUCHADREZZAR II
As for the other supposed builder –
King Nebuchadrezzar II (reigned c. 605–
c.561 BC), it is said that he built the
legendary gardens to console his wife
Amytis of Media, because she was
homesick for the mountains and
greenery of her homeland.
Nebuchadnezzar II is most widely
known through his portrayal in the
Bible, according to the Bible, he
conquered Judah and Jerusalem, and
sent the Jews into exile.

29. LOCATION
The gardens, presumed to have been
located on or near the east bank of
the River Euphrates, about 31 miles
south of Baghdad, Iraq. A more recent
theory proposes that the gardens were
actually constructed in the city of
Nineveh, on the bank of the river Tigris.
It is possible that Through the ages,
the location of the Hanging Gardens
may have been confused with gardens
that existed at the city of Nineveh,
since tablets from the place clearly
show gardens.

30. ABOUT THE GARDEN
The gardens were about 75 feet (22
meters) high. The image of the gardens is
impressive not only for its blossoming
flowers, ripe fruit, gushing waterfalls,
terraces lush with rich foliage, and exotic
creatures, but also for the engineering feat
of supplying the massive, raised gardens
with soil and water. German architect and
archaeologist Robert Koldewey who is
known for revealing the semilegendary
Babylon as a geographic and historical
reality, discovered huge vaults and arches
at the site. He also uncovered an ancient
hydraulic system like a pump drawing
water from the river.

31. Babylon, too, lies in a plain; and the circuit of its wall is three
hundred and eighty-five stadia. The thickness of its wall is thirty-
two feet; the height thereof between the towers is fifty cubits;
that of the towers is sixty cubits; the passage on top of the wall
is such that four-horse chariots can easily pass one another; and
it is on this account that this and the hanging garden are called
one of the SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD

32. The garden is quadrangular in shape, and each
side is four plethra in length. It consists of arched
vaults, which are situated, one after another, on
checkered, cube-like foundations. The checkered
foundations, which are hollowed out, are
covered so deep with earth that they admit of
the largest of trees, having been constructed of
baked brick and asphalt — the foundations
themselves and the vaults and the arches. The
ascent to the uppermost terrace-roofs is made
by a stairway; and alongside these stairs there
were screws, through which the water was
continually conducted up into the garden from
the Euphrates by those appointed for this
purpose. For the river, a stadium in width, flows
through the middle of the city; and the garden is
on the bank of the river.

33. The Garden was 100 feet (30 m) long by 100 ft wide and built up in tiers so that it
resembled a theatre. Vaults had been constructed under the ascending terraces which
carried the entire weight of the planted garden; the uppermost vault, which was
seventy-five feet high, was the highest part of the garden, which, at this point, was on
the same level as the city walls. The roofs of the vaults which supported the garden
were constructed of stone beams some sixteen feet long, and over these were laid first
a layer of reeds set in thick tar, then two courses of baked brick bonded by cement, and
finally a covering of lead to prevent the moisture in the soil penetrating the roof. On
top of this roof enough topsoil was heaped to allow the biggest trees to take root. The
earth was levelled off and thickly planted with every kind of tree. And since the
galleries projected one beyond the other, where they were sunlit, they contained
conduits for the water which was raised by pumps in great abundance from the river,
though no one outside could see it being done.

34. And then there were the Hanging Gardens.
Paracleisos going up to the top is like climbing a
mountain. Each terrace rises up from the last like
the syrinx, the pipes of pan, which are made of
several tubes of unequal length. This gives the
appearance of a theater. It was flanked by perfectly
constructed walls twenty-six feet thick. The galleries
were roofed with stone balconies. Above these
there was the first of a bed of reeds with a great
quantity of bitumen, then a double layer of baked
bricks set in gypsum, then over that a covering of
lead so that moisture from the soil heaped above it
would not seep through. The earth was deep
enough to contain the roots of the many varieties of
trees which fascinated the beholder with their great
size and their beauty. There was also a passage
which had pipes leading up to the highest level and
machinery for raising water through which great
quantities of water were drawn from the river, with
none of the process being visible from the outside.

35. DIFFERENT LEVELS
The hanging gardens didn’t actually
hang… The name “hanging” comes
from the Greek word “kremastos”
or the Latin word “pensilis”, which
mean more “overhanging” than just
“hanging” as in the case of a
terrace or balcony. The gardens
were probably developed on a
structure like a ziggurat and built in
the form of elevated terraces, so
that the gardens were at different
levels which grew around and on
top of a building.

36. HERE IS A PUZZLE
In Herodotus’ description of the city of Babylon
(Histories, Book I, sections 178-184), where he
claims to have been to Babylon himself, he fails to
mention the gardens, this is usually taken as proof
that they did not exist. But a Dutch historian Jona
Lendering thinks that Herodotus’ description of
Babylon is so extraordinary that he even
characterises it as “nonsensical”.
The 18th-century Historian, Edward Gibbon goes
even further and accuses Herodotus of never
having set foot in Babylon at all. Despite these
considerations, if you try to sketch out the city plan
as herodotus describes it, you’ll see that it’s pretty
accurate in relation to archaeological maps… so
how come that he never mentions the Gardens?

37. ANOTHER PROOF
Another proof of the consideration that the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon never actually
existed are many thousands of clay tablets
from that period in Babylon. Stone tablets
from Nebuchadnezzar’s reign give detailed
descriptions of the city of Babylonia, its walls,
and the palace, but do not refer to the
Hanging Gardens. Some historians claim that
the warriors in the army of Alexander the
Great were amazed at the immense prosperity
of the thriving city of Babylon and tended to
exaggerate their experiences greatly. When
the soldiers returned to their stark homeland,
they had incredible stories to relate about the
remarkable gardens, palm trees, and imposing
buildings of rich and fertile Mesopotamia.

38. IN ANCIENT WRITINGS
In ancient writings the Hanging Gardens
of Babylon were first described by
Berossus, a Chaldaean (a dynasty in
Babylonian history) priest who lived in the
late 4th century B.C. In his book
Babyloniaca, written around 280 B.C. The
book is lost, but it was summarized by
Alexander Polyhistor in C1 BC in a treatise
of 42 books on world history and
geography which is also lost. That
treatise, however, was used by Josephus
(37–100 AD), who discussed the gardens
twice – once in Jewish Antiquities, and
once in Contra Apionem (Against Apion,
or Against the Greeks).

39. Ancient Greek historians, Strabo, Philo and Diodorus
gave us these description of the hanging gardens of
Babylon:

40. STRABO
“The Garden is quadrangular, and
each side is four plethra long. It
consists of arched vaults which are
located on checkered cube-like
foundations.. The ascent of the
uppermost terrace-roofs is made
by a stairway…”

41. PHILO
“The Hanging Garden has plants cultivated
above ground level, and the roots of the trees
are embedded in an upper terrace rather than
in the earth. The whole mass is supported on
stone columns… Streams of water emerging
from elevated sources flow down sloping
channels… These waters irrigate the whole
garden saturating the roots of plants and
keeping the whole area moist. Hence the grass
is permanently green and the leaves of trees
grow firmly attached to supple branches… This
is a work of art of royal luxury and its most
striking feature is that the labor of cultivation is
suspended above the heads of the spectators.”

42. DIODORUS
“The approach to the Garden
sloped like a hillside and the
several parts of the structure rose
from one another tier on tier. On
all this, the earth had been
piled…and was thickly planted with
trees of every kind that, by their
great size and other charm, gave
pleasure to the beholder. The
water machines [raised] the water
in great abundance from the river,
although no one outside could see
it.”

43. ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIGS
Recent archaeological digs at Babylon have unearthed
a major palace, a vaulted building with thick walls
(perhaps the one mentioned by Greek historians), and
an irrigation well in proximity to the palace. Although
an archaeological team surveyed the palace site and
presented a reconstruction of the vaulted building as
being the actual Hanging Gardens, accounts by Strabo
place the Hanging Gardens at another
location, nearer the Euphrates River. Other
archaeologists insist that since the vaulted building is
thousands of feet from the Euphrates, it is too distant
to support the original claims even if Strabo happened
to be wrong about the location. The latter team
reconstructed the site of the palace, placing the
Hanging Gardens in a zone running from the river to
the palace. Interestingly, on the banks of the
Euphrates, a newly discovered, immense, 82-foot
thick wall may have been stepped to form terraces
like those mentioned by the ancient Greek sources.

44. HISTORIANS BELIEVE
Archaeologists and historians
believe that the Hanging Gardens of
Babylon were not destroyed by an
earthquake but by other minor
disasters such as: erosion and
warfare. The huge construction
probably started falling apart under
the influence of the weather. Armies
and other raiders could have been
for its eventual destruction and
disappearance. After about 600 or
700 years, the whole structure had
been levelled to the ground.

45. POSSIBILITY
A more recent theory proposes that
the gardens were actually constructed
under the orders of Sennacherib, who
took the throne of Assyria in 705 BC,
reigning until 681 BC. During new
studies of the location of Nineveh
(Located on the eastern bank of the
Tigris in ancient Assyria) his gardens
were placed close to the entrance of
his palace, on the bank of the river
Tigris. It is possible that in the
intervening centuries, the two sites
became confused, and the hanging
gardens were attributed to Babylon.

49. Nearly all the Greeks agreed that the Lighthouse should be
included as one of the wonders of the world.
It was
built
around
290 BCE
on the
Island of
Pharos in
the
harbor of
Alexandri
a, Egypt.

50. It was a working
lighthouse that
helped ships find
their way safely
into harbor.
It was also a
tourist attraction.

51. In ancient times, visitors could buy food
at the observation platform on the first
level.
Anyone who wished to do could climb
nearly to the top.
There were not many places in the
ancient world that visitors could climb a
man-made structure, 300 feet up, to
view the sea.

52. The Lighthouse at
Alexandria stood
for over 1500
years.
Scientists believe an
earthquake topped
the Lighthouse
during the 12th
century CE, about
250 years before
Columbus
discovered America!

57. LOCATION & ORIGIN
 The Royal Library of
Alexandria, or Ancient
Library of Alexandria,
was located in Alexandria,
Egypt.
 It flourished under the
patronage of the
Ptolemaic dynasty and
functioned as a major
center of scholarship
from its construction in
the 3rd century BC until
the Roman conquest of
Egypt in 30 BC.

58. The library of Alexandria had many names because of its
greatness and the number and variety of books it contained.
It was named "the royal library of Alexandria, the Grand
Library, or the great library of Alexandria. The library acted
as a major center for science and culture for many
centuries.
The design of the library
The design of the modern library of Alexandria consisted of
four underground stores and six upper stores. The special
shape of the modern library of Alexandria is considered a
special architectural germ.
The oval shape of library from outside that is a symbol of
the continuity of life as the sun comes out of the sea and
goes from the highest point till the lowest point overlooking
the sea. The library is sounded by a great wall that was
made out of Aswan Granite and it contains writing and
inscriptions in 120 languages
The library is 10 stores height which have an oval shape
cover with a radius of 60 meters. The library is divided into
reading sections which is 14.4 × 9.6 meters in size. The
library was designed to last for two centuries but there are
fears that this period might be exaggerated because of its
closeness to the sea.

59. The ancient Library
of Alexandria in 300
BC captured much of
the world’s science
by collecting over
700,000 papyrus
scrolls giving birth to
the first university.

60. What was the Ancient Library
of Alexandria?
*The most famous among all
ancient and medieval libraries
*Largest library in all antiquity
*Largest research institution
well known by scholars from
all over the Mediterranean.
Even after its disappearance
since 1600 years ago, it
continues to survive in the
memory of all scholars to this
day.

61. The Library
•Built in the Brucheion (Royal Quarter) in the style of
Aristotle's Lyceum, adjacent to and in service of the
Musaeum (a Greek Temple or "House of Muses", hence the
term "museum"), the library comprised a Peripatos walk,
gardens, a room for shared dining, a reading room, lecture
halls and meeting rooms.
•However, the exact layout is not known.
•The library itself is known to have had an acquisitions
department (possibly built near the stacks, or for utility
closer to the harbour), and a cataloguing department.

62.  A hall contained shelves for the collections of scrolls (as the books
were at this time on papyrus scrolls), known as bibliothekai
 Legend has it that carved into the wall above the shelves was an
inscription that read: The place of the cure of the soul.
 The first known library of its kind to gather a serious collection of
books from beyond its country's borders, the Library at Alexandria
was charged with collecting all the world's knowledge.
 It did so through an aggressive and well-funded royal mandate
involving trips to the book fairs of Rhodes and Athens and a policy
of pulling the books off every ship that came into port.

63.  They kept the original texts and made copies to send back
to their owners. This detail is informed by the fact that
Alexandria, because of its man-made bidirectional port
between the mainland and the Pharos island, welcomed
trade from the East and West, and soon found itself the
international hub for trade, as well as the leading producer
of papyrus and, soon enough, books.
 Other than collecting works from the past, the library was
also home to a host of international scholars, well-
patronized by the Ptolemaic dynasty with travel, lodging
and stipends for their whole families.
 As a research institution, the library filled its stacks with
new works in mathematics, astronomy, physics, natural
sciences and other subjects.
 Its empirical standards applied in one of the first and
certainly strongest homes for serious textual criticism.
 As the same text often existed in several different
versions, comparative textual criticism was crucial for
ensuring their veracity. Once ascertained, canonical copies
would then be made for scholars, royalty and wealthy
bibliophiles the world over, this commerce bringing income
to the library.

64. •It is now impossible to determine the collection's size in any era with
any certainty. Papyrus scrolls comprised the collection, and although
parchment codices were used after 300 BC, the Alexandrian Library is
never documented as having switched to parchment, perhaps because
of its strong links to the papyrus trade. (The Library of Alexandria in
fact had an indirect cause in the creation of writing parchment — due to
the library's critical need for papyrus, little was exported and thus an
alternate source of copy material became essential.)
•A single piece of writing might occupy several scrolls, and this division
into self-contained "books" was a major aspect of editorial work.
• King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 BC) is said to have set
500,000 scrolls as an objective for the library.
•Mark Antony supposedly gave Cleopatra over 200,000 scrolls (taken
from the great Library of Pergamum) for the library as a wedding gift,
but this is regarded by some historians as a propagandist claim meant
to show Antony's allegiance to Egypt rather than Rome.
• No index of the library survives, and it is not possible to know with
certainty how large and how diverse the collection may have been. For
example, it is likely that even if the Library of Alexandria had hundreds
of thousands of scrolls (and thus perhaps tens of thousands of
individual works), some of these would have been duplicate copies or
alternate versions of the same texts.

65.  A possibly apocryphal or exaggerated story concerns
how the library's collection grew so large. By decree of
Ptolemy III of Egypt, all visitors to the city were required
to surrender all books and scrolls, as well as any form of
written media in any language in their possession which,
according to Galen, were listed under the heading
"books of the ships".
 Official scribes then swiftly copied these writings, some
copies proving so precise that the originals were put into
the library, and the copies delivered to the unsuspecting
owners.
 This process also helped to create a reservoir of books
in the relatively new city.

66.  Ancient and modern sources identify
four possible occasions for the
partial or complete destruction of the
Library of Alexandria:
 Caesar's conquest in 48 BC
The ancient accounts by Plutarch,
Aulus Gellius, Ammianus
Marcellinus, and Orosius agree that
Caesar accidentally burned the
library down during his visit to
Alexandria in 48 BC.
 Attack of Aurelian, 3rd
century
The library seems to have been
maintained and continued in
existence until its contents were
largely lost during the taking of the
city by the Emperor Aurelian (270–
275), who was suppressing a revolt
by Queen Zenobia of Palmyra (ruled
Egypt AD 269–274). During the
fighting, the areas of the city in
which the main library was located
were damaged.

67.  Decree of Theodosius,
destruction of the Serapeum in
391
Paganism was made illegal by an edict of the
Emperor Theodosius I in 391. The holdings of
the Great Library were on the precincts of
pagan temples. While this had previously lent
them a measure of protection, in the days of
the Christian Roman Empire, whatever
protection this had previously afforded them
had ceased. The temples of Alexandria were
closed by PatriarchTheophilus of Alexandria in
AD 391.
 Arabic sources
In 642, Alexandria was captured by the
Muslim army of Amr ibn al `Aas. There are
five Arabic sources, all at least 500 years
after the supposed events, which mention
the fate of the library.
 Abd'l Latif of Baghdad(1162–1231) states
that the library of Alexandria was
destroyed by Amr, by the order of the
Caliph Omar.
 The story is also found in Al-Qifti (1172–
1248), History of Learned Men, from whom
Bar Hebraeus copied the story.

68.  The longest version of the story is in
the Syriac Christian author Bar-
Hebraeus (1226–1286), also known as
Abu'l Faraj. He translated extracts from
his history, the Chronicum Syriacum
into Arabic, and added extra material
from Arab sources. In this Historia
Compendiosa Dynastiarum he
describes a certain "John
Grammaticus" (490–570) asking Amr
for the "books in the royal library".
Amr writes to Omar for instructions,
and Omar replies: "If those books are
in agreement with the Quran, we have
no need of them; and if these are
opposed to the Quran, destroy them."
 Al-Maqrizi (1364–1442) also mentions
the story briefly, while speaking of the
Serapeum.
 There is also a story in Ibn Khaldun
(1332–1406) which tells that Omar
made a similar order about Persian
books.

69.  Re-construction of the storage rooms…

70. PARTHIAN EMPIRE
 BEIEF HISTORY
 GEOGRAPHY
 ART
 ARCHITECTURE
 NISA
 CTESIPHON
 IWAN
 ZHAHAK CASTEL
 HATRA

71. PARTHIAN EMPIRE
 The Parthian empire was the most
enduring of the empires of the
ancient Near East.
 After the Parni nomads had settled
in Parthia and had built a small
independent kingdom, they rose to
power under king Mithradates the
Great (171-138 BCE).
 The Parthian empire occupied all of
modern Iran, Iraq and Armenia,
parts of Turkey, Georgia,
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan,
Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and -for
brief periods- territories in Pakistan,
Syria, Lebanon, Israel and
Palestine.
 The end of this loosely organized
empire came in 224 CE, when the
last king was defeated by one of
A barrel vaulted iwan at the their vassals, the Persians of the
entrance of Hatra Sassanid dynasty.

72. BRIEF HISTORY
When Alexander died in 323 B.C.,
he had conquered the
great Achaemenid empire, which
stretched from the Mediterranean
Sea to India. His successor as ruler
of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Iran
was one of his generals, Seleucus
I, who established the Seleucid
dynasty. Along the trade routes
that linked ancient and newly
established cities, Hellenistic art
and culture, a fusion of the various
Near Eastern and classical Greek
traditions, permeated the Near
Eastern world. While in the west
the Seleucids faced the Ptolemies,
Alexander's successors in Egypt, in
the east, a seminomadic
confederacy, the Parni, were on
the move.

73. BRIEF HISTORY
Parni’s advanced from NE Iran toward the
frontier of the Seleucid satrapy of Parthia,
near Caspian Sea.
In ca.250 B.C., they launched an invasion
under their leader Arsaces.
The Parthians as they were known after
conquering Parthia they made their own
imperial aspirations clear by instituting a
dynastic era in 247 B.C., and subsequent
rulers assumed the name Arsaces as a royal
title.
185 B.C. – Parthians expand into eastern
Iran
Under Mithradates I (r. ca. 171–139 B.C.)
and his successors, the Parthians grew into
the dominant power in the Near East .
The Romans, who were ambitious to
dominate the Near East in the style of
Alexander, underestimated the capabilities
of the Parthian kings and had to negotiate
peace under Augustus.

74. Parthia, now impoverished and
without any hope to recover the
BRIEF HISTORY lost territories, was demoralized.
The kings had to do more
concessions to the nobility, and
Decline And Fall the vassal kings sometimes
Roman emperor Trajan decided to refused to obey. In 224 CE, the
invade Parthia. In 114 CE and the Persian vassal king Ardašir
Parthians were severely beaten. The
Romans conquered Armenia, and revolted. Two years later, he took
Ctesiphon, and established new Ctesiphon, and this time, it meant
provinces in Assyria and Babylonia.
However, rebellions broke out. At the the end of Parthia.
same time, the diasporic Jews revolted
and Trajan was forced to send an army Parthia, impoverished & without a
to suppress them. hope to recover the lost
Nonetheless, it was clear that the territories, was demoralized. The
Romans had learned how to beat the
Parthians. Thirty years later King kings had to do more concessions
Vologases V tried reconquering to the nobility, and the vassal
Mesopotamia during a Roman civil war
(193 CE), but when general Septimius kings sometimes refused to obey.
Severus was master of the empire, he In 224 CE, the Persian vassal king
attacked Parthia. Ctesiphon was
captured (198 CE), and large spoils Ardašir revolted. Two years later,
were brought to Rome. he took Ctesiphon, and this time,
it meant the end of Parthia.

75. GEOGRAPHY
The core land areas of ancient Parthia lay
between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf,
and its boundaries included all of modern Iran
and contained portions of what are now modern
Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azarbaijan,
Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. These
borders moved fluidly during the reign of the
Arsacids, and areas to the west as far as Gaza
and Palestine at one time fell under Parthian
rule.
There are four basic land regions in Iran:
• The mountains - cover almost one-fourth of
Iran, and most of the people in Iran live in the
mountain area. The valleys among the
mountains are the main area of agriculture
production
• The desert
• The Caspian Sea coast - extends in a narrow
strip between Alborz mountains and the sea.
Almost all of Iran's forests are located there. It
is the only region in Iran with heavy rainfall
• The Khuzestan plain
The area covered by ancient Parthia, which
roughly corresponds to modern Iran, was
approximately 648,000 square miles

76. CULTURE
 The empire was a part of
Achaemenid Empire & Religion
later Seleucid Empire.
The Parthians worshiped the
 So it was influenced by cult of Mithra. Which spread
both Achaemeind and to entire Roman Empire, its
Greek in Parthian rituals festivals etc.
culture. absorbed into Christianity.
It is also believed that
 This can be seen clearly
Parthians widely practiced
through their arts.
Zoroastrianism

77. ART Parthian art can be divided
into three geo-historical
phases: the art of Parthia
proper; the art of the Iranian
plateau; and the art of
Parthian Mesopotamia. The
first genuine Parthian art,
found at Nisa, combined
elements of Greek and
Iranian art in line with
Achaemenid and Seleucid
traditions. In the second
phase, Parthian art found
inspiration in Achaemenid art,
as exemplified by the
investiture relief of
Mithridates II at Mount
Behistun.The third phase
occurred gradually after the
Parthian conquest of

78. ART
 Common motifs of the Parthian
period include scenes of royal
hunting expeditions and
the investiture of Arsacid
kings.
 Common art mediums were
rock-reliefs, frescos, and
even graffiti.
 Geometric and stylized plant
patterns were also used
on stucco and plaster walls.

79. ARCHITECTURE
Parthian architecture was characterized by the
use of sun-dried or kiln-baked bricks, with vaults
to roof the buildings. The Parthians developed
the iwan, an open-fronted vaulted hall. They are
often covered with carved stucco reliefs, some of
the finest examples of which are found at Uruk
and Ashur. The palace at Ashur has the earliest
example of four iwans opening onto a central
square. This form of architecture supplanted
Hellenistic styles in Iraq and Iran, and was
adopted by the Sasanians and continued to set
the model for architecture in the early Islamic
period.
While glaze was used on vessels and even coffins
in the Parthian period, little architectural
evidence exists of glazed brick. On vessels and
other glazed items, turquoise and light green
glaze were the most popular colours. Fresco
painting was more popular for the decoration of
buildings.
An architectural form known as ogee to
Europeans and zigzag molding to Iranian
architects, is of Parthian origin. Parthian
architects constructed palace walls with cut
stones. They also used stucco to render the
walls. The themes of their stuccos were
geometrical lines and floral designs. In stone
carving, a popular theme was equestrian statues
in relief.

80. NISA
Nisa was an ancient city,
located near present day
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Nisa
is described by some as one
of the first capitals of
the Parthians. It was
traditionally founded
by Arsaces I (reigned c. 250
BC–211 BC), and was
reputedly the royal
necropolis of the Parthian
kings, although it has not
been established that the
fortress at Nisa was either a
royal residence nor a
mausoleum.

81. NISA
The archaeological site
consists of two distinct
complexes, New Nisa and Old
Nisa.
The excavations carried out
here have established that
New Nisa was one of the
most important cities of the
region, which flourished from
at least the Parthian period
until the Middle Ages, while
Old Nisa contains within its
strong towered ramparts a
series of monumental and
service buildings which
constituted a ceremonial
center for the rulers of the
Arsacid dynasty

82. EXCAVATIONS IN NISA
General view of the excavations General view of Nisa, east to west

83. EXCAVATIONS IN NISA
ROUND HALL OF NISA VIEW OF SQUARE HALL

84. CTESIPHON
The historically important
site of Ctesiphon, about 30
km to the south east
of Baghdad, was built by
the Parthian Persians on the
east side of the Tigris from
Seleucia in the middle of
the 2nd century BC.

85. ZHAHAK CASTEL
 Zahhak Castle is a castle or
citadel in East Azerbaijan
Province, Iran.
 It is named after Zahhak, a
figure in Persian mythology.
 Zahhak Castle has been
unearthed slowly by
archaeologists who have
discovered that different parts
of the castle were built in later
periods. The castle with 10km
length, 1-3km width and height
of 150-250m includes a square
shaped hall made of bricks built
during the Parthia period.

86. ZHAHAK CASTEL
The castle has a 11X11m
square-shaped hall, walls
2.5m thick, and 4 entrances
to 4 corridors built with
bricks, decorated with
beautiful plasterworks of
human, vegetation and
geometrical designs. During
this time, Zoroastrianism
was the religion of the
ruling kings, who likely used
part of the castle for a fire
temple.

87. HATRA
Hatra, it seems things
started with a smallish
Assyrian settlement which
then grew sometime in the
3rd century BC to become a
fortress and a trading
center. In the 2nd century
BC, it flourished as a major
staging-post on the famous
oriental silk road.

88.  Hatra is the best preserved and most
HATRA informative example of a Parthian
city.
 It is encircled by inner and outer
walls nearly 4 miles (6.4 km) in
circumference and supported by
more than 160 towers.
 Atemenos surrounds the principal
sacred buildings in the city’s centre.
 The temples cover some 1.2 hectares
and are dominated by the Great
Temple, an enormous structure
with vaults and columns that once
rose to 30 metres.
 The city was famed for its fusion
of Greek, Mesopotamian, Syrian &
Arabian pantheons.
 The city had temples
to Nergal (Babylonian and Akkadian),
Hermes (Greek), Atargatis (Syro-
Aramaean), Allat and Shamiyyah (Ar
abian)
and Shamash (the Mesopotamian sun
god)