Susa facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Susa
	شوش
Location	Shush, Khuzestan Province, Iran
Region	Zagros Mountains
Type	Settlement
History
Founded	Approximately 4200 BCE
Abandoned	1218 CE
Events	Battle of Susa
Site notes
Condition	Abandoned and in ruins
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Susa
Criteria	Cultural: i, ii, iii, iv
Reference	1455
Inscription	2015 (39th Session)

Susa (Ancient Greek: τά Σοῦσα) was an ancient Iranian city. It was part of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains. It is about 250 km (160 mi) east of the Tigris River and is between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers.

The site "consists of three gigantic mounds, occupying an area of about one square kilometer, known as the Apadana mound, the Acropolis mound, and the Ville Royale (royal town) mound."

The modern Iranian town of Shush is located on the site of ancient Susa. Shush is identified as Shushan, mentioned in the Book of Esther and other Biblical books.

Images for kids

Map showing the area of the Elamite kingdom (in red) and the neighboring areas. The approximate Bronze Age extension of the Persian Gulf is shown.
Site of Susa
Assyria. Ruins of Susa Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection
Goblet and cup, Iran, Susa I style, 4th millennium BC - Ubaid period; goblet height c. 12 cm; Sèvres – Cité de la céramique, France
Globular envelope with the accounting tokens. Clay, Uruk period (c. 3500 BCE). From the Tell of the Acropolis in Susa. The Louvre
Silver cup from Marvdasht, Iran, with a linear-Elamite inscription from the time of Kutik-Inshushinak. National Museum of Iran
The marriages of Stateira II to Alexander the Great of Macedon and her sister, Drypteis, to Hephaestion at Susa in 324 BC, as depicted in a late-19th-century engraving.
Letter in Greek of the Parthian king Artabanus III to the inhabitants of Susa in the 1st century CE (the city retained Greek institutions since the time of the Seleucid empire). Louvre Museum.
Glazed clay cup: Cup with rose petals, 8th–9th centuries
Anthropoid sarcophagus
Lion on a decorative panel from Darius I the Great's palace
Marble head representing Seleucid King Antiochus III who was born near Susa around 242 BC.
Glazed clay vase: Vase with palmtrees, 8th–9th centuries
A tablet showing the destruction of Susa by Ashurbanipal in 647 BC
Winged sphinx from the palace of Darius the Great at Susa.
Tomb of Daniel
Ninhursag with the spirit of the forests next to the seven-spiked cosmic tree of life. Relief from Susa.
19th-century engraving of Daniel's tomb in Susa, from Voyage en Perse Moderne, by Flandin and Coste.
Archers frieze from Darius' palace at Susa. Detail of the beginning of the frieze, left. Louvre Museum
Ribbed torc with lion heads, Achaemenid artwork, excavated by Jacques de Morgan, 1901
Shush Castle, 2011
Children in Susa
Herm pillar with Hermes, from the well of the "Dungeon" in Susa.