Capital of a Column AOD 1
Sully room 12a
This capital comes from one of
the audience hall (Apadana) columns
of the Palace of Darius I.
The column it crowned was more
than 20 metres high.
Note here the fluted shaft, the floral decorations,
the upper edge or ‘fanlight’ and the busts of bulls upon which rested the cedarwood ceiling.
This is where the events reported in
the Book of Esther took place.
Some have raised doubts over the authenticity of the account while at the same time remarking that ‘the setting of the scene is accurate and striking in terms of local colour’. A210
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