Susa

Susa was inhabited from about 4200 BC and was in turn an Elamite capital, an Achaemenid royal city, a Parthian and Sassanid centre and an Islamic town, which gives it an occupation sequence covering roughly five thousand years on a group of mounds beside the Karkheh river. The Achaemenid palace of Darius stood here, and the Code of Hammurabi and the Stele of Naram-Sin were both found on the site, carried here as spoils and now in the Louvre. The most striking thing on the ground is not ancient: French excavators in the 1890s built themselves a fortified brick castle on the acropolis, using bricks from the ruins, and it still stands over the site. The tomb attributed to the prophet Daniel is in the town below.

What you actually see

• The French excavators' castle - a brick fort built on the acropolis in the 1890s.
• The Achaemenid palace platform - Darius's residence at foundation level.
• Five thousand years of mounds - the layered occupation of the site.
• The tomb of Daniel - a conical white shrine in the town below.

When to go

November to March; Khuzestan is one of the hottest places in the country from May onward. Half a day. Mornings are best. The site museum holds some finds, though the famous ones are in Paris.

Honest expectations

Most of the site is at foundation level and the great objects are in the Louvre, which is a sore point locally. There is very little shade. Signage is limited and largely in Persian. Summer visits are genuinely dangerous for heat.

Nearby

Chogha Zanbil is south-east; Shushtar lies east.