Persépolis

Historian of architecture and civilizations, Henri Stierlin has been looking at the arts of Greece and Iran for years. He has confronted here the remains of the Greek temples of Ionia, dating back to the century before our era, with the ruins of Persian palaces built twenty years later in Iran, following the invasion of Anatolia and the deportation of the Ionian builders by Cyrus. Contrary to the ideas received, he claims that intense cooperation has been established between the Greeks of Ionia and the Persians. He demonstrates, with photographs and texts, the implementation of Greek construction techniques on the famous site of Persepolis. Architects, stone tailors and Greek sculptors are thus the authors - under the title of the tribute - of the high columns with superimposed drums and of the multiple figures carved from the great frieze of the Tributaries of Persepolis. This discovery leads him to a stimulating rereading of the relations between Greeks and Persians.