Two Sassanid Buildings

Sarvestan Palace: This was a large building made with stone and gypsum in the south of Sarvestan in Fars province. The building had different parts including Ivans, rooms and several corridors. The palace was located in the middle of a garden and had vestibules connecting several spaces surrounding it. The living room was a rectangular space covered with a dome opening on one side to the vestibule and on the other side to the surrounding garden. On the left of the living room, there was a Pishkhan juxtaposed with Howzkhaneh (a room with a pond in the middle) opening to a large Ivan. Building materials used in this building consist of cobble- stone and brick together with gypsum mortar. It seems that the use of breadth-wise arcs in tall verandas and half-domes for covering the main vestibule are among creative solutions invented in that age. Ardeshir Babakan Palace or the Fire-Temple of Firoozabad: Some sources disapprove that the building was ever intended to be used as a palace, because palaces require cer- tain spaces that this building lacks. This fire-temple was made of three main parts: a high Ivan with four large halls and two others perpendicular to its sides; three domed interconnected halls also connected to the main Ivan; and a courtyard with two Ivans and surrounding halls. One of the characteristics of the building is its stucco-work following the example of stone portals of Achamanid palaces. The outer façade of the building was decorated with plaster half-columns. The most important similarity between the two buildings is their plan. The central courtyard (Miyansara) is square-shaped and surrounded by rectangular courtyards in both buildings. The existence of three juxtaposed square-shaped domed halls with equal importance, a complete symmetry in plan and a large pond in front of the building in Firoozabad fire-temple comes in contrast with the presence of only one large domed hall in Sarvestan Palace and a complete asymmetry of plan. Thus, it can conclude that the buildings had different functions.