Apadana of Persepolis belongs to the years before the Common Era — dated here to c. 518 BCE at Parsa, Iran. The date is a scholarly centre of gravity, not a foundation-stone timestamp.
Darius I’s audience hall held 72 columns; stairway reliefs freeze a United Nations of the empire bringing New Year gifts.
How it was made
Cedar from Lebanon, gold fittings, and stone bulls at the capitals. The platform is a carved mountain terrace.
Why it still counts as a wonder
It never needed a Greek list to be a wonder: the labour, the alignment, or the survival is enough.
Alexander burned it in 330 BCE. The standing stumps still choreograph tribute better than most intact palaces.
On dating
BCE in this series means years before the traditional birth of Christ, counted backward. A monument listed as c. 518 BCE may have been founded earlier, rebuilt later, or famous only in one phase. Where ancient writers disagree — as they do for Babylon’s gardens — we say so.
This is story 34 of 100 in The Trend Ledger’s illustrated desk on world wonders raised before the Common Era.