Standing solemnly on the east bank of the Tigris River, near modern-day Salman Pak, Iraq, the Arch of Ctesiphon, or Taq Kasra, is the last surviving remnant of the ancient Persian imperial capital of Ctesiphon. Once the beating heart of the Sᴀssanian Empire (224–651 CE), it was among the greatest cities of the ancient world — a hub of art, religion, and architecture that rivaled Rome and Constantinople.

The grand arch, originally part of the royal audience hall, was constructed around 540 CE during the reign of King Khosrow I (Anushiruwan the Just), who led Persia into a golden age of cultural and political dominance. The structure, known for its immense brick vault, remains the largest single-span brick arch in the world, a testament to the ingenuity of Persian engineering.

The Taq Kasra was not just an architectural marvel but a statement of imperial grandeur. The original structure, as reconstructed through archaeological drawings and digital models, reached a height of 37 meters (121 feet) and a width of 26 meters (85 feet), enclosing a mᴀssive vaulted hall that extended nearly 50 meters (164 feet) deep.

It was built primarily of unreinforced baked bricks bound together with lime mortar and bitumen, a material that gave the structure both flexibility and resilience against time and temperature. The arch’s form is a parabolic vault, tapering gracefully toward the top, distributing weight evenly without the need for interior supports — a pioneering method centuries ahead of Gothic Europe’s ribbed vaults.

The façade once glowed with white plaster and painted reliefs, while the interior was decorated with geometric frescoes, Sᴀssanian motifs, and royal imagery. The ceiling’s deep blue was said to represent the heavens, upon which golden stars were painted to symbolize divine order — a visual manifestation of the Sᴀssanian king’s link to cosmic authority.

The arch formed part of a sprawling palace complex within Ctesiphon, the imperial capital that had grown from a small Parthian settlement into a metropolis sprawling across both banks of the Tigris. Together with the nearby city of Seleucia, it created a twin urban center known to classical writers as “The Cities” (Al-Mada’in).

Ctesiphon served as the seat of power for successive Persian dynasties — the Parthians, the Sᴀssanians, and briefly, the Muslim Caliphate. At its height, the city symbolized the crossroads of East and West: Persian kings received Roman envoys beneath this very arch, while caravans from India and Byzantium traded silk, spices, and ideas along its streets.

The Sᴀssanian engineers who constructed the arch employed precise mathematical and geometrical calculations to achieve its stability. Each layer of brick was slightly offset from the one below, creating a self-supporting curve without the need for centering scaffolds. This innovation, a hallmark of Persian construction, would influence architectural design from Baghdad’s Abbasid palaces to the Seljuk mosques and beyond.

The walls were built from mudbrick and fired clay, with sections reinforced by bituminous mortar to withstand moisture from the Tigris floodplain. Traces of plaster and pigment suggest the hall was once vividly colored, its visual opulence reflecting the empire’s wealth and its devotion to the Zoroastrian concept of Asha (divine order) — harmony between heaven, earth, and human civilization.

The grand hall beneath the arch, known as the Iwan, served as the royal audience chamber — a place where Khosrow I would hold court, receive ambᴀssadors, and celebrate triumphs. The space was designed to impress: a vast vaulted canopy rising above the king’s throne, bathed in light from high openings, amplifying his divine presence.

The iwan itself became a quintessential Persian architectural form, symbolizing authority and cosmic order. Later Islamic architects adopted and transformed it, making it a defining feature of mosques and palaces across the Middle East and Central Asia. In this way, Taq Kasra became the spiritual ancestor of Islamic architecture, linking pre-Islamic Persia to the architectural heritage of the Muslim world.

Ctesiphon’s glory faded after the Arab conquest in 637 CE, when the city was abandoned and its stones reused in Baghdad’s early construction. Over centuries, earthquakes and floods eroded much of the complex, leaving only the mᴀssive arch standing — a broken yet enduring symbol of a vanished empire.

European explorers in the 19th century, including Claudius Rich (1818) and Austen Henry Layard (1840s), were among the first to document and sketch the ruins. In the 20th century, archaeological missions by Ernst Herzfeld and later the Iraqi Department of Antiquities carried out studies to preserve what remained.

Modern preservation efforts have been led by the Taq Kasra Conservation Project (launched in 2013), which uses 3D scanning and digital reconstruction to stabilize the structure and digitally recreate its lost glory.

Even in ruin, the Arch of Ctesiphon continues to inspire. It is the largest surviving architectural remnant of the Sᴀssanian Empire, often regarded as the last great pre-Islamic Persian civilization. The empire’s influence shaped not only Persian idenтιтy but also the political and cultural foundations of the Islamic Golden Age that followed.

The arch’s engineering brilliance influenced later constructions such as the Umayyad Great Mosque of Damascus, the Abbasid palaces of Samarra, and even the Safavid mosques of Isfahan. Its design principles — symmetry, geometry, and spiritual symbolism — continue to define Persian architecture across millennia.

Today, visitors to Al-Mada’in, about 35 kilometers south of Baghdad, can still stand before the vast shadow of Taq Kasra. Though much of the façade has collapsed, the remaining vault looms defiantly against the desert sky. The air inside is cool and still, carrying whispers of processions long past — of musicians, soldiers, and courtiers who once filled its echoing space.

In 2021, renewed restoration campaigns were initiated after sections of the arch suffered partial collapse. International cooperation between Iraqi authorities, UNESCO, and heritage foundations seeks to ensure the monument’s survival as both a national treasure and a universal testament to human creativity.

The Arch of Ctesiphon stands as one of humanity’s greatest architectural survivors — a fragment of a vanished empire that still commands awe. From its majestic construction in 540 CE to its weathered silhouette in the 21st century, it represents the eternal dialogue between creation and decay, between memory and time.

Long after empires have crumbled and languages faded, the arch remains — not merely as stone, but as a bridge across civilizations, linking ancient Persia to the modern world.

A Farmer’s Misplaced Hammer Led to the Largest Roman Treasure in Britain

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November 16, 1992 was the day which changed Suffolk-resident Eric Lawes’ life in a huge way. What he thought would have been an innocent search for a hammer he had misplaced on his farm in Hoxne Village, Suffolk, England ended up bringing him much more than he had bargained for — namely, uncovering the hiding spot of a long-hidden treasure. Based on the Guardian’s coverage of the story, Eric Lawes had been previously gifted a metal detector upon his retirement as a parting token. He decided to put his retirement gift to good use in order to locate the hammer which he had had some trouble finding. According to a 2018 Smithsonian Magazine article, when the device started recording that there was a strong signal coming from the earth, he knew that he was about to discover something big. As he started digging, it soon became clear to him that he had unearthed a treasure trove.

The Guardian reports that, when Lawes saw that his preliminary digging had yielded a few gold coins and silver spoons, he immediately contacted both the local archaeological society and the police department. Archaeologists came to the property the following day and had the area of earth holding the treasure carefully sectioned-off and removed. Their hope was that at a later stage, in their laboratory, they could examined the items in order to identify both their age and how they were stored.

When all was said and done, close to 60 pounds of items made from silver and gold were found on the site. These included more than 15,000 Roman coins, 200 gold objects, and several silver spoons. For archaeologists, this find — which later became labeled as the Hoxne Hoard — was an incredible discovery. AP News reported that archaeologist Judith Plouviez was over-the-moon about the discovery, saying that it was “an incredibly exciting and amazing find.” What’s more, another archaeologist, Rachel Wilkinson, told Smithsonian Magazine that this discovery was “the largest and latest ever found in Britain.”

Ordinarily, archaeologists would use radiocarbon dating as a means of identifying the age of ancient relics. However, they couldn’t locate any suitable material from the haul. Consequently, they determined the age by examining writing on the coins, as well as the ruler carved into them, estimating that the treasure was probably buried in either 408 or 409 AD.

Roman-era archaeologist Peter Guest told Smithsonian Magazine that “if you look at them a little more carefully, then they should be dated to the period after the separation of Britain from the Roman Empire.” He offers as part of his evidence the fact that almost all of the coins found in the Hoxne Hoard were clipped – in other words, small chunks of their edges had been taken off. These clippings would have been used to create coins which were similar to the Roman coins of that era.

Guest has a logical reason for this, arguing that “The Roman Empire wasn’t supplying Britain with new gold and silver coins, and in light of that, the population tried to get over this sudden cutoff in the supply of their precious metals by making the existing supplies go further.”

Archaeologists also believe that the treasure belonged to a Romano-British family. During that time, considering that there was so much societal discord and upheaval, it was common for Romans who had settled in Britain to bury their most prized possessions.

That said, one archaeologist is of the belief that the hoard had a lot of sentimental value for the Romano-British family to whom it is believed to have belonged. In her book The Hoxne Late Roman Treasure: Gold Jewellery and Silver Plate, Catherine Johns claims that the manner in which the treasure was kept supported this claim. Some of the items which were recovered had been packaged in small, wooden boxes which were lined with leather. What’s more, pieces of wood, locks, and nails, among other things, surrounded the gold and silver pieces. This leads Catherine to assert that the package was carefully buried and not simply chucked away in a rush.

Interestingly enough, the items unearthed might shed some light on the identity of the family who owned them. They cite a gold bracelet bearing the inscription “UTERE FELIX DOMINA IULIANE,” which roughly translates to “use this happily Lady Juliane”. A second name “Aurelius Ursicinus” has also been discovered. This has consequently led some to believe that Juliane and Aurelius were the couple and the original owners of the treasure. That said, that has yet to be confirmed.

All in all, the discovery was a real treasure for archaeologists, and by extension, for Lawes. According to Smithsonian Magazine, in recognition of his discovery and willingness to contact authorities, the British government rewarded him with over £1.7 million, an amount which he shared with the farmer whose land was dug out in order to get the treasure. Funnily enough, apart from the treasure, Lawes also found his lost hammer — which now resides in the British Museum.