The building process of this palace started at Darius the Great age and ended at Xerxes the First. The surface floor of the Apadana palace of Persepolis or Takht-e Jamshid is 3 meters upper than its yard floor and the floor of Gates of All Nations also. The entrance of this palace had huge wooden twin doors which were decorated with precious metals and walls made with colored bricks.
Gathering kings together and organizing kings’ union to have international negotiations necessitated building such a magnificent palace. Darius the Great considered that and ordered to build this palace. In terms of art, politic, history and architecture this is the largest and most important palace in Persepolis complex and is also the only palace for which they made cornerstone with description. Archeologists found these golden and silver cornerstones in northern and southern sides. Darius the Great mentioned the borders of Persia and Ahura Mazda’s help on those cornerstones.
There were once 72 columns which held the roof of the palace. Now 12 of them have been remained. Each column has 85 tones of weight and 20 meters in height. On top of each column in eastern porch I mean head of the column there is a twin-lion sculpture but in western porch the shape of sculptures on top of columns are twin-bulls. Between the head of two-headed bull or lion sculptures the roof was being located. The wooden roof used to cover the palace. On the body of cylindrical stone column architects created soft groove with beautiful color but now they have lost their color over more than 2500 years.
The eyes, tongues and noses of bulls on top of the columns used to be red and their hoofs was dyed golden. The beard of human’s head sculpture was painted in azure color.
Central hall of Apadana palace
This hall was prepared to welcome thousands of diplomats from different parts of the world. The same as western porch on top of each column there is a two headed-bull sculpture. lithography design on 20-meter cylindrical pillars and their bottom parts are not the same.
The stairs
The stone stairs and staircases of Apadana palace of Persepolis or Takht-e Jamshid is a fantastic art and historical masterpiece. Because the ground floor of Apadana palace is higher than other palaces they made stone stairs on northern and eastern sides as entrances. The lithography and sculpturing on the stone staircases have pictured a scene in which kings of other countries who were supported by Achaemenids were bringing gifts for Achaemenid king.
There are 811 pictures of human on the stone and thousands of pictures from other symbols. The lithography on eastern stairs is more clear and less damaged than the other one because this part used to be under the soil. The intriguing part of the lithography is the picture of 32 Satrapies (A high rank position in the army like colonel or general) which conveys the art, power and civilization of Persia at that time.