Susa Travel Guide | Iran Travel Information

Susa is one of the oldest cities in the world. Excavations have established the existence of urban structures about 4000 BCE, and it is reasonable that the town, situated between the rivers Karkheh and Dez (one of these is the ancient Eulaeus), was already the political center of Elam in the fourth millennium. A castle on a steep hilltop dates back to this period (in the center of the picture). The Assyrian king Aššurbanipal destroyed the Elamite capital between 645-640.

Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of the region and indeed the world, possibly founded about 4200 BCE (See List of oldest continuously inhabited cities); although the first traces of an inhabited village have been dated to ca. 7000 BCE. Evidence of a painted-pottery civilization has been dated to ca. 5000 BCE.

In historic times, Susa was the primary capital of the Elamite Empire. Its name in Elamite was written variously Šušan, Šušun, etc. The city appears in the very earliest Sumerian records, eg. in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta it is described as one of the places obedient to Inanna, patron deity of Uruk

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