Taq Kasra

Tāq Kasrā(Arabic:طاق كسرى,romanized:ṭāq kisrā), also transcribed asTaq-i KisraorTaq-e Kesra(Persian:طاق کسری, romanized:tâğe kasrâ) orAyvān-e Kesrā(Persian:ایوان خسرو,romanized:Eivâne Xosrow, meaningIwanofKhosrow) are the remains of aSasanian-eraPersianmonument, dated to c. the 3rd to 6th centuries, which is sometimes called theArch of Ctesiphon.It is located near the modern town ofSalman Pak,Iraq. It was the facade of the main palace inCtesiphon, and is the only visible remaining structure of the ancient capital city. The archway is considered a landmark in thehistory of architecture,and is the second largest single-spanvaultof unreinforcedbrickworkin the world after theGavmishan Bridgein Iran.
The exact time of the structure's construction is not known with certainty. Some historians believe it was constructed underShapur Iwho ruled Sassanian Persia from 242 to 272 ADand some other believe that construction possibly began during the reign ofAnushiruwan the Just (Khosrow I)after acampaign against the Byzantinesin 540 AD.The archediwanhall, open on the facade side, was about 37 meters high, 26 meters across and 50 meters long, the largest man-made, free standing vault constructed until modern times.
The arch was part of the imperial palace complex. Thethrone room—presumably under or behind the arch—was more than 30 m (110 ft) high and covered an area 24 m (80 ft) wide by 48 m (160 ft) long. The top of the arch is about 1 meter thick while the walls at the base are up to 7 meters thick.Thecatenary archwas built withoutcentring.In order to make this possible a number of techniques were used.The bricks were laid about 18 degrees from the vertical which allowed them to be partially supported by the rear wall during construction.The quick drying cement used as mortar allowed the fresh bricks to be quickly supported by those that were previously laid.
The Taq Kasra is now all that remains above ground of a city that was, for nine centuries—from the 2nd century BC to the 7th century AD—the main capital of the successor dynasties of the Persian empire:ParthiansandSassanids. The structure left today was the mainporticoof the audience hall of the Sassanids who maintained the same site chosen by the Parthians and for the same reason, namely proximity to theRoman Empire, whose expansionist aims could be better contained at the point of contact.
The structure wascaptured by the Arabs during the conquest of Persiain 637.They then used it as a mosque for a while until the area was gradually abandoned.In the early 10th century, theAbbasid caliphal-Muktafidug up the ruins of the palace to reuse its bricks in the construction of theTaj PalaceinBaghdad.
The Arabic poetAl-Buhturiwrote a famous poem about the ruins in the 9th century.
The monument is also the subject of a poem by the Persian poetKhaqani, who visited the ruins in the 12th century.
In 1851, French artistEugène Flandinvisited and studied the structure withPascal Costewho remarked "the Romans had nothing similar or of the type."
In 1888, a serious flood demolished the greater part of the edifice.
In 1940, the British writerRoald Dahl, then undergoing pilot training atRAF HabbaniyanearBaghdadtook an award-winning photograph using aZeiss cameraof the Arch of Ctesiphon in Iraq which was subsequently auctioned by the Dahl family to raise funds for theRoald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.The photo made £6,000. In his autobiographyBoyhe writes:
The monument was in the process of being rebuilt bySaddam Hussein's government in the course of the 1980s, when the fallen northern wing was partially rebuilt.All works, however, stopped after the 1991Persian Gulf War. From 2004 to 2008 the Iraqi government cooperated with theUniversity of Chicago's Diyala Project to restore the site at a cost of $100,000.The Ministry of Culture also invited a Czech company, Avers, to restore the site. This restoration was completed in 2017.
On March 7, 2019, a partial collapse further damaged the Taq Kasra, just two years after its latest restoration was completed.
In January 2021, Iranian Minister of Cultural HeritageAli Asghar Mounesanmentioned that a credit of about $600,000 would be required for the restoration of Taq Kasra.
In 2017,Pejman Akbarzadeh, based in the Netherlands, made the first full-length documentary film about Taq Kasra:Taq Kasra: Wonder of Architecture. The monument had been in danger ofISISattacks in 2015–2016; Akbarzadeh feared that it might be destroyed soon, and therefore felt urgency to film his documentary.The film explores the history and architecture of Taq Kasra with many scholars and archaeologists in various countries.