From a river oasis to an imperial stage, Susa became a bridge between worlds.
Founded in the fourth millennium BCE, it grew into the heart of Elam—where temples, workshops, and courts shaped a regional power.
Early cuneiform tablets record rations, treaties, and royal gifts, revealing a city tied to Mesopotamian networks.
Conquerors came and went: Akkadian kings claimed it; Elamite rulers like Shutruk-Nakhunte seized trophies from Babylon.
Under the Achaemenids, Susa rose again.
Darius I built palaces here, ordered trilingual inscriptions, and launched the Royal Road that funneled goods, envoys, and ideas across an empire.
Susa mattered because movement happened here—of grain, silver, laws, and language.
Its bricks still remember.