Gate of all nations

The first alignment offered itself immediately. one of the arms points directly at “The gate of all nations”

This was a quite distinct part of the palace complex at Persepolis, designed to be the focus of the Persian King’s relationship with all the countries within the empire. As the Shah had paid tribute to Cyrus the Great in particular as an enlightened ruler, it did not seem in any way unusual for such an alignment to be made when the camp was constructed.

Of course this line does not stop at the gate.

The Fire Temple

It stretches out across North Eastern Iran.

It passes through the town of Yazd and on zooming in it can be seen to pass through a building with a relatively unusual layout. Investigation revealed that this building is a fire temple.

Here is an external view of the front of the temple.

This attendant is tending the sacred flame. the flame in this building is to the rear away from the doorway. This one of the primary lines of the camp layout align’s itself with a Zoroastrian Fire temple. This temple is relatively simple and unimposing. The building is relatively recent but the sacred flame has been burning there since before the time of Christ.

The entrance to Persia

Nor does this line stop there it continues to the Iranian border at Dargaz, Also known as Dara, which in persian means wealthy, Dargaz lay on the silk road, became rich because of that and was both an educational and religious centre. In recent times it has been an Islamic centre but 1500 years ago it was a centre of Zoroastrian culture.

The line passes through Dargaz but is remakable decaus it bisects both the passes which delineate the Persian border, a border which appart from ambitions to assimilate Bactria just before and immediately after the time of Alexander the Great has always been the Persian Border.

the line is shown in blue and the path of the Silk rd is shown in red.

Now clearly there is a problem in explaining this. The line from the camp to Yazd passing through the gate of all nations could have been arranged by careful positioning of the camp but this extension to the two passes marking the Persian border cannot. The fire at Yazd could have been positioned on the line from Dargaz to Persepolis but the fire is supposed to have been in the same spot for at least two thousand years so the positioning could not have been arranged for the purpose of the celebration. It suggests that there were alignments from Persepolis which are more than two thousand years old!