Susa (Shush)

The ancient city of Susa, historically known as Shush, is located in the lower Zagros Mountains of southwestern Iran. Today, the archaeological site sits directly beneath the modern Iranian town of Shush in the Khuzestan Province. It was a major urban center for several millennia.

Susa served as the capital of the Elamite civilization for centuries before becoming a prominent administrative capital for the Achaemenid Empire. Persian rulers such as Darius the Great built a massive winter palace there. Later, it also served as a royal center for the Parthian and Sassanid empires.

Susa is famously where the Code of Hammurabi was discovered by French archaeologists in 1901. The basalt stele, containing ancient Babylonian laws, had been taken as plunder by the Elamites in the 12th century BCE. Today, the original stele is housed in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Yes, the Susa archaeological site was officially inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015. It was recognized for its evidence of continuous habitation spanning several millennia. The site contains layers of urban evolution from the Elamite, Persian, and Parthian periods.