A monument to a language
Ferdowsi spent some thirty years on the Shahnameh and is remembered as the man who kept the Persian language alive. His tomb stands in Tus, his home region. It was built in the early 1930s and completed in 1934, as Iran marked a thousand years since his birth.
The building
A white marble base about 16 metres high carries a square upper structure, reached by twelve steps. The design draws on Achaemenid architecture and resembles the Tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae. Friezes inside show scenes from the epic, many of them about Rostam, and the outside carries bulls and winged Faravahar symbols like those of Persepolis.
The long pause
Standing here you can read the verses that stand for the heart of the Persian story. See Ferdowsi for the poet and the epic.
