In which country are the ruins of the city Persepolis, once the capital of the Persian Empire?

Persepolis, Old Persian "Parsa", modern "Takht-e Jamshīd" (Persian: “Throne of Jamshīd,” Jamshīd being a character in Persian mythology), was an ancient capital of the kings of the Achaemenian dynasty of Iran (Persia) and is located about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Shīrāz in the Fars region of southwestern Iran. The site lies near the confluence of the Pulvār (Sīvand) and Kor rivers. In 1979 the ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The site is marked by a large terrace with its east side abutting the Kūh-e Raḥmat (“Mount of Mercy”). On the terrace are the ruins of a number of colossal buildings, all constructed of a dark gray stone from the adjacent mountain.

The stone was cut with the utmost precision into blocks of great size, which were laid without mortar; many of them are still in place. Especially striking are the huge columns, 13 of which still stand in the audience hall of Darius I (reigned 522–486 BCE), known as the "apadana", the name given to a similar hall built by Darius at Susa. There are two more columns still standing in the entrance hall of the Gate of Xerxes, and a third has been assembled there from its broken pieces.

Archaeological evidence shows that the earliest remains of Persepolis date back to 515 BC. André Godard, the French archaeologist who excavated Persepolis in the early 1930s, believed that it was Cyrus the Great who chose the site of Persepolis, but that it was Darius I who built the terrace and the palaces.