Firuzabad, Fars

This article is about the city in Fars Province, Iran. For other uses, see Firuzabad (disambiguation).

Firuzabad فيروزآباد
city
Firuzabad
Coordinates:
Country	Iran
Province	Fars
County	Firuzabad
Bakhsh	Central
Population (2011)
• Total	64,969
Time zone	IRST (UTC+3:30)
• Summer (DST)	IRDT (UTC+4:30)

Firuzabad (Persian: فيروزآباد‎‎ also Romanized as Fīrūzābād; anciently, Sassanid Middle Persian Ardashir-Khwarrah – اردشيرخوره, meaning "The Glory of Ardashir") is a city in and the capital of Firuzabad County, Pars Province (Persian Province), Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 58,210, in 12,888 families.

Firuzabad is located south of Shiraz. The town is surrounded by a mud wall and ditch.

Alexander of Macedonia destroyed the original city of Gōr. Centuries later, Ardashir I, founder of the Sassanid Dynasty, revived the city before it was ransacked during the Arab invasion of the seventh century.

Firuzabad is situated in a low-lying area of the region, so Alexander was able to drown the city by directing the flow of a river into the city. The lake he created remained until Ardashir I built a tunnel to drain it. He founded his new capital city on this site.

Ardashir's new city was known as Khor Ardashīr, Ardashīr Khurah and Shāhr-ī Gōr. It had a circular plan so precise in measurement that the Persian historian Ibn Balkhi wrote it to be "devised using a compass". It was protected by a trench 50 meters in width, and was 2 kilometers in diameter. The city had four gates; to the north was the Hormozd Gate, to the south the Ardashir Gate, to the east the Mithra Gate and to the west the Wahram Gate. The royal capital's compounds were constructed at the center of a circle 450 m in radius. At the center point of the city was a Zoroastrian fire temple 30 m high and spiral in design, which is thought to have been the architectural predecessor of the Great Mosque of Samarra of Iraq. (See satellite photo in the top right hand corner of the article.)

The city's importance was revived again in the reign of Adud al-Dawla of the Buyid dynasty, who used the city as his frequent residence. It is at this time that the old name of the city—Gōr, was abandoned in favor of the new. In New Persian, spoken at the time, Gōr had come to mean "grave." King Adud al-Dawla, as the story goes, found it distasteful to reside in a "grave." Per his instruction, the city's name was changed to Peroz-abad, "City of Victory." Since then, the city has been known by variations of that name, to include Firuzabad (Middle Persian Fīrūzābād).

Among the attractions of the city are the Ghal'eh Dokhtar, the Palace of Ardeshir, and the fire temple tower among the remains of Gōr.

See also

• Ghal'eh Dokhtar in Firuzabad.
• Palace of Ardeshir in Firuzabad.
• Bishapur
• Cities of the Ancient Near East

External links

• Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 5: Drawings and Maps, Records of Firuzabad Collections Search Center, S.I.R.I.S., Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• Firuzabad, Livius.
• A guided tour of Firouzabad Palace, Ardeshir's Palace: YouTube (2 min 52 sec).
• Fars Cultural Heritage Organization

• 

  Sassanian first king Ardashir I "Ardachir Babakan") relief at Firuzaba (Tangab relief).