March 6, 2008Steve Collins
The link below contains what I think is a very interesting photo of a city that was built during the latter part of the Parthian Empire. As readers of my books and blogs know, the often-ignored Parthian Empire was ruled by the so-called ten tribes of Israel, who had been exiled into Asia in the 8th century BC. Hosea 1:10 prophesied the exiled ten tribes would be vastly increased in population after their exile, and Isaiah 14:2 prophesied that the ten tribes would eventually rule over those nations which had held them captive. The Parthian Empire fulfilled these prophecies. The Israelite origins of the Parthians is easily-seen and abundantly-documented in my book, Parthia–The Forgotten Ancient Superpower. Parthia existed from approximately 250 BC to 227 AD, and it ruled over the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians (who had held many of the exiled Israelites captive).
The city shown and described in the link is a Persian city which was built by a Persian “vassal ruler” of the Parthian King during the time when the Persians were still under Parthian rule, according to the link. This was very near the end of the Parthian Empire’s period of dominance, and it was this particular, Persian vassal-ruler, Ardashir, who was the leader of the revolt which overthrew the Parthian Empire and sent its people fleeing toward Europe via the Caucasus Mountains in the 3rd century AD. The link claims this was Ardashir’s city.
Note the city is built in a “perfect circle” divided into “20 sectors” featuring streets shaped as “radial and concentric circles” within that zone. The city was surrounded by a wall which was a “20 cornered polygon of nearly 8 km in diameter” with “traces of canals, paths, walls and field borders continue up to 20 km from the central tower.” This was a large city, and it served as “ground zero” for the revolt which overthrew the empire of Parthia. The Parthians were known for giving their subject peoples extensive local autonomy, and that very tendency may have contributed to its eventual downfall. As my book notes, Ardashir made Zoroastrianism the state-religion of his new Sassanian Persian Empire and he persecuted and drove out the Semitic Parthians (which included Christians, Jews, sun-worshippers, etc.) at the time when Parthia fell.
This link is important as it confirms the advanced state of municipal construction and organization within the Parthian Empire. The city described and shown in this link was merely a regional headquarters city in Parthia’s empire. One wonders what the true state of development was in the governing Parthian cities when it is realized that the Parthians were advanced enough to mass-produce primitive (by our standards) electric batteries, repeatedly defeated the mighty Roman Empire in warfare and built huge sailing vessels with seven masts that traded with nations in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
