Historical Notes on Ctesiphon

University of Babylon
College of Arts
The Department of Archaeology
Fourth Year/ Islamic
The Course: (Readings in Archaeology)
Lecture No. One

A. Text Two: Part One
Historical Notes on Ctesiphon
“The arch of Ctesiphon is situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris, about 40 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. It is cosidered the biggest and highest of its kind in the ancient world. In fact, it forms a part of a great Sassanian palace known during the Abbasid times as the white palace or “Chosroes Iwan”. With the exception of the arch, the walls of this palace crumbled and disappeared leaving only some mounds. The surviving section of the arch s vault is a fine brick work; its height from ground level to top is 25,5 metres; the length of arch from front to rear is about 48 metres thick.
The Iwan faces the east, and has three doors. Two of them are close to the opening of the arch in the left and right, and the third is in the middle of the western wall. To the west of the arch is a wall of 6 metres thick, towering as high as the summit of the arch itself. In 1942, the Directorate General of Public works built a buttress of bricks and cement to prevent its leaning forward and eventual collapse.
The wall façade is decorated with four rows of columns and recesses where probably statues were originally erected. The corresponding wall which was standing at the north side of the arch fell down in April 1887 by the effect of the floods of the Tigris and disappeared completely since then. The debris, mounds and trenches indicate the extention of the palace stretching out afar around the arch. The standing section of the arch is in some way indicating the significance of the palace that was standing in the 3rd century A.D. during the reign of the Sassanian Persians.”

B. Now, answer the following questions as fully as possible:
1. Where is the arch of Ctesiphon situated?
2. What is the arch of Ctesiphon considered?
3. What was the arch of Ctesiphon known in the times of Abbasids?
4. What does the Iwan face?
5. How many doors does it have?
6. What is the wall façade decorated with?
7. What made the north side of the arch fall down? When?
8. What is the standing section of the arch indicating?

C. Glossary:
a. crumbled: fall to pieces, shatter, collapse
b. mounds: piles, heaps
c. vault: arch, dome
d. rear: back end
e. faces: stands opposite; stands face to face
f. summit: highest point, pinnacle, peak
g. buttress: support, reinforce
h. leaning: inclination, bent
i. eventual: final; occurring as a result
j. façade: part of a building which faces the street; outward appearance
k. recesses: niches, indentations in a wall
l. debris: fragments, rubble, wreckage, ruins
m. afar: from far off; from a distance
n. Significance: importance; quality of having meaning
o. Reign: possessing sovereign power, ruling, controlling, governing


Good Luck


The Lecturer: Mr. Baqir Jasim Mohammed