City
Susa
SOO-suh · Modern Shush, Khuzestan Province, Iran · Also called Shushan
Susa is a city of the biblical world, known today as Shush, Khuzestan Province, Iran.
What is known
- The primary setting of the book of Esther, where Esther became queen to King Ahasuerus (widely identified with Xerxes I) and interceded to save the Jewish people from Haman's decree
- Served as one of the residences (and eventually favored winter capital) of the Achaemenid Persian kings, alongside Persepolis, Ecbatana, and Babylon
- Nehemiah was serving as cupbearer to King Artaxerxes I in the citadel of Susa when he received news of Jerusalem's ruined walls (Nehemiah 1:1)
- The prophet Daniel records a vision received while at the citadel of Susa (Daniel 8:2)
- French excavations beginning in the 1880s (Marcel and Jane Dieulafoy, later Jacques de Morgan) recovered the famous glazed-brick friezes and the stele bearing the Code of Hammurabi, brought to Susa as war booty by Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte
History
- Founded
- One of the oldest continuously significant cities in the Near East, occupied since roughly 4200 BC; capital of Elam for over two millennia before becoming a Persian royal capital
- Population
- A major imperial capital under the Achaemenids; precise Persian-period population figures are not well established, but it hosted a large royal court and administrative bureaucracy
- Industry
- Achaemenid administrative and winter royal capital; center of tribute collection and monumental palace-building using materials and craftsmen drawn from across the empire
- Coordinates
- 32.1876° N, 48.2566° E
Rulers and powers
- Elamite kings — c. 2700-539 BC (with interruptions)
- Cyrus the Great and the Achaemenid Persian Empire — 539-331 BC
- Darius I (built the great palace at Susa) — 522-486 BC
- Xerxes I (Ahasuerus of the book of Esther) — 486-465 BC
Archaeology
The ruins of Susa lie beneath and around Shush, Iran, including the Apadana mound (site of Darius I's palace) and the Acropolis mound. French-led excavations from the 1880s through the 20th century recovered glazed-brick reliefs, the Hammurabi stele, and extensive Elamite and Achaemenid remains, many now in the Louvre.
Scripture references
- Nehemiah 1:1
- Esther 1:2
- Esther 2:8
- Esther 3:15
- Esther 4:16
- Esther 8:15
- Esther 9:6-15
- Daniel 8:2
On a modern map
Further reading
Reflect
In Susa's palace, Esther heard that she had come to her position 'for such a time as this' — what position are you in right now, and for whom?
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