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Gour Dokhtar, which means daughter’s grave in the Persian language, is a small Achaemenid (550-330 BC) crypt with strong resemblance to the tomb of Cyrus the Great (576-530 BC) in Pasargadae. The structure is 4.5 meters high and is comprised of 24 stone slabs joined together with the anathyrosis method (an ancient technique used to dress the joints without the use of mortar) as customary of Achaemenid architecture.

There are several theories about the occupant of the crypt. Cyrus the Younger (?-401 BC), the son of Darius II (reign 423– 405 BC), Teispes (?-640 BC), one of Cyrus the Great’s ancestors, Atossa (550-475 BC), Cyrus the Great’s daughter, Mandana of Media (584- 559 BC), Cyrus the Great’s mother, and Cyrus the Great’s sister have been named as possible occupants of the crypt.

The structure was discovered in 1961 by a Belgian archaeologist Louis Vanden Berghe (1923-1993). Gour Dokhtar was registered as a National Heritage site in 1998. 

Gour Dokhtar

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