Meaning of SUSA

This name would suggest to the Hebrews the large number of lilies that grow in the region. Important residential city of the kings of Persia (Neh. 1:1; Est. 1:2), in the province of Elam, on the Ulai River (Dn. 8:2).

The king had warehouses there. Assurbanipal seized this city during a campaign around 642-639 BC. Later, it was subject to the kings of Chaldea.

The royal family, to which Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon, belonged, reigned over Ansan, which appears to have been a district east of Elam. When Cyrus had founded the Persian empire, he elevated Susa to the rank of capital, an honor he shared with Ecbatana and Babylon.

When Alexander the Great entered Susa (331 BC) he seized the great treasures that were kept in the city. In 317 BC, Antigonus took it again. Susa then began its decline, but later resisted the Muslim invasion.

This city is located on the Karkeh, about 240 km from the Persian Gulf. Its most important ruins are located within a space of about 2 km long and almost 1.5 km wide. The perimeter measures about 5 km.

If the ruins scattered a little further away are included, the perimeter then reaches between 9 and 11 km. The complex is made up of a series of tells, the main one of which has been explored since an expedition in the period of 1884-1886 French began excavations.

Jacques de Morgan discovered the Code of Hammurabi in this tell in 1901. The royal palace has also been excavated, wonderfully decorated with colored enamelled bricks, and with numerous relief motifs. It is quite possible that this was the palace in which the feasts and banquets of Ahasuerus in the book of Esther took place (Esther 1:2, 3, 9; 2:18; etc.).