Sassanian architecture

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Sassanian architecture. Architecture in Persia in the period AD 224–631, usually of brick, with much use of arches and vaults, covered with stucco. Surviving examples are the palaces at Ctesiphon (probably C6, though some have said it dates from C4, with a mighty brick vault covering the hall), Sarvistan (c.350, with a dome and conical squinch-arches), and Feruz-abad (c.250—again with domes and conical squinch-arches). Sassanian architecture included the iwan and the cone-shaped squinch, later to be important features of Islamic architecture. As Zoroastrianism was the State religion of the Sassanians, fire-temples were erected, e.g. that at Takht-i-Sulayman in Azerbaijan, with high-domed chambers.

Bibliography

Cruickshank (ed.) (1996);
Jane Turner (1996)