Allegorical mythlogy of Takht-e-Jamshid complex

During last century domination of positivist paradigm resulted in limiting to scientific and quantitative methods in architecture and urban planning which led to loss of meaning and identity in cities and urban environments. In order to solve these problems qualitative study of cities in a way that takes in to account culture, society and physic of the city as a whole and within cultural texts has grown significantly. Cultural studies is one of the most recent interdisciplinary approaches that emphasis on the study of all the elements that is called culture altogether in interaction with each other, and accordingly urban cultural studies is focused on different kinds of cultural texts, their importance in urban studies and also accurate reading and making use of them. On the other hand, by inventing the New Mythology and mythological criticism approach the possibility of methodological study of myths as one of the sources of cultural studies have been provided. Therefore, in this paper, the main question is that, what are the main characteristics of Takht-e-Jamshid by referring to the mythical cities especially Kangdej, and what are the relations between them. Therefore, at first, the method of allegorical mythology one of the methods of mythological criticism is explained, and then this method is used to understand the true meaning of Takht-e-Jamshid complex. Allegorical mythology is one of the first methods of mythological criticism approach and it is invented by Georg Friedrich Creuzer. Creuzer as an idealist established his method on Plato's allegory theory and the relation between Idos and Icon. According to Creuzer, ancient peoples used myths to explain the rational things that could not be expressed through resemblance or direct analogy (symbolism), and thus with the help of implicit implication of myths they created a way to understand and explain the rational things. Study of Takht-e-Jamshid complex with the help of allegorical mythology of Creuzer showed a relationship between this complex and mythical cities like Kangdej and Varejamkard and that the relation between ideal cities and places such as Kangdej, Mehr Palace, and Varejamkard is direct and based on similarity. However, the relationship between ideal cities with some real ones such as the central part of Takht-e-Jamshid is not of the same kind, but of indirect connotations and implicit implications, therefore the relationship is a mythical one; it seems as if making a utopia like Kangdej is the allegorical and archetypical cause of Takht-e-Jamshid. These implicit implications to ideal cities and places such as Kangdej, Mehr Palace, and Varejamkard are apprehended through different elements and details, composition of the spaces of Takht-e-Jamshid, and also the characteristics of the complex as a whole, and among the physical examples of these implicit implications in this complex we can mention numerous columns in all of the parts of it, leaning on the Mehr Mountain, arrangement of palaces and the colors used in them, special decorative motifs for each of the parts of it in relation to its use, and etc. which all have counterparts in mythical cities.