Susa
one of the capitals of ancient Persia; was situated on the Choaspes, and has now been identified with the extensive ruins on the left bank of the Kerkha, about 250 miles S. E. of Bagdad. It had a circumference of 120 stadia, and like Babylon was built of burnt bricks cemented with asphalt. It was without walls, but its citadel, containing the treasury and mausoleum of the Persian kings, was strongly fortified.
The founder of Susa is not known with certainty, but it was at least much enlarged by Darius Hystaspes, the ruins of whose palace, repaired by Artaxerxes Longimanus, have been excavated by Loftus and Williams. From the time of Cambyses Susa was a favorite residence of the Persian kings. After Alexander and his successors had fixed their court at Babylon Susa declined in importance, though when besieged by Antigonus in 315 B. c. it was still one of the chief cities of Persia, and even as late as the middle of the 7th century A. D. it offered under Hormuzan an obstinate resistance to the Saracens; but in the 13th century it had become a heap of ruins. The most important of these ruins are those of the palace of Darius, the colonnade of which has a frontage of 343 feet and a depth of 244. In general construction it ex- SUSA actly resembles the Hall of Xerxes at an elevated track, one carriage on each Persepolis. References to Susa abound in the ancient authors, especially Herodotus, Xenophon, and Arrian.