🔍 Pasargadae – or a Women‑Only Shrine? The untold story of the “Tomb of Solomon’s Mother”

The structure known today as the Tomb of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae was, for centuries throughout the Islamic period, called "Tomb of Solomon's Mother" (مقبره مادر سلیمان).

Historical records reveal a remarkable fact: until recent times, men were strictly forbidden from entering the shrine.

📜 What travelers observed:

· John Struys (1672) noted it was a pilgrimage site for devout women, who would bow and kiss the tomb three times before praying.
· Sir Robert Ker Porter (1706) reported that the shrine was maintained by women from nearby villages.
· Eugène Flandin (1844) confirmed that men were absolutely barred from entering, and local women fiercely guarded this rule.
· Even James Morier (1809) was denied access because he was a man.
· When Madame Dieulafoy (1881) entered wearing men’s clothing, she faced violent reactions from local women who believed she was male.

🕌 A site with a feminine identity
During the reign of the Atabegs in Fars (around 620–621 AH), a Friday mosque was built around the tomb, and a mihrab was carved into the stone inside the burial chamber. Yet the local tradition remained unwavering: this was a women’s sanctuary, associated in popular belief with a revered female figure.

❓ How did it become "Cyrus’s Tomb"?
The attribution to Cyrus the Great is not a centuries-old local belief, but a later Western assertion—one that lacks clear early evidence and contradicts the site’s long‑standing gendered tradition.

For generations, people of the region insisted the tomb belonged to a woman. Only after Western orientalists began promoting the Cyrus narrative did that certainty turn into doubt.

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📖 Sources & further reading:

· George Nathaniel Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question (1892)
· Travel accounts of Struys, Porter, Flandin, Morier, Dieulafoy
· Encyclopaedia Iranica: “Cyrus v. The Tomb of Cyrus”

📍 Original article (Persian):
https://jscenter.ir/slave-jews/cyrus/3831

#Pasargadae #Cyrus #IranianHistory #ColonialNarratives #WomenHistory #Archaeology

🆔 @rahyafte_en