how did ancient persian buildings look?

by urusai_baka

In games that usually pay attention to authenticity persian buildings are portrayed with blue being the color dominating the exterior as shown here and in general looking quite like later muslim architecture

is this portayal actually accurate?the games i am referring to are mostly rome total war 1 and 2 which occur mainly in the arsacid and sassanid period.

sorry for any mistake or lack of clarity this is my first post in this sub and english is not my native language

cdbavg400

Hi there. The portrayal of the Persian buildings in your linked screenshot are definitely more reminiscent of later Muslim buildings, such as the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, but the blue-colored bricks probably harken back to ancient Babylonian buildings as well. Most famously, the Ishtar Gate, a Neo-Babylonian ceremonial gate from the city of Babylon, was built with blue glazed bricks. Now, the entire city of Babylon wasn't built out of blue bricks, but some of the more ceremonial buildings were, and the city was probably more colorful than some other depictions of Mesopotamian cities may lead you to believe.

As for "Persian" buildings, we know quite a bit about how the palaces and tombs of the Achaemenid kings look based on their archaeological remains. One of the main capitals, Persepolis, has been beautifully reconstructed digitally here, and the royal tombs at Naqsh-i Rustam are incredibly astounding as well (although it is unknown if the reliefs on these tombs would have been adorned with any color).

Only one building remains from the Parthian (i.e. Arsacid) capital of Ctesiphon, and that building only gives a glimpse at the immensity of their architectural style. Nonetheless, we can say with certainty that the city was not ablaze with blue and gold surfaces.

This is only a preview of what we know about ancient Persian buildings. If you wish to see more, I recommend checking out Michael Roaf's Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, which contains many beautiful pictures of archaeological remains from many of these sites, as well as maps and reconstructions. For something that focuses primarily on the Arsacid and Sassanian periods, Rahim Shayegin's Arsacids and Sasanians is great and recent, but a bit short on images.