Bishapur
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_Sassanid_Period_2.jpg)
The ruins of Bishapur
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 Shown within Iran
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| Alternate name | Bishâpûr |
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| Location | Kazerun, Fars Province, Iran |
| Coordinates | 29°46′40″N 51°34′15″E / 29.77778°N 51.57083°ECoordinates: 29°46′40″N 51°34′15″E / 29.77778°N 51.57083°E |
| Type | Settlement |
| History | |
| Builder | Shapur I |
| Founded | 226 |
Bishapur (Middle Persian: Bay-Šāpūr; Persian: بیشاپور, Bishâpûr) was an ancient city in Iran on the ancient road between Persis and Elam. The road linked the Sassanid capitals Estakhr (very close to Persepolis) and Ctesiphon. It is located south of modern Faliyan in the Kazerun County of Pars Province, Iran.
Bishapur was built near a river crossing and at the same site there is also a fort with rock-cut reservoirs and a river valley with six Sassanid rock reliefs.
The name Bishapur derives from Bay-Šāpūr, which means Lord Shapur.
According to an inscription, the city itself was founded in 266 by Shapur I (241-272), who was the second Sassanid king and inflicted a triple defeat on the Romans, having killed Gordian III, captured Valerian and forced Philip the Arab to surrender. In his native province of Fars, he built a new capital that would measure up to his ambitions: Bishapur, Shapur's City. Outside the city, Shapur decorated the sides of the Bishapur River gorge with huge historical reliefs commemorating his triple triumph over Rome. One of these reliefs, in a semicircular shape, has rows of registers with files of soldiers and horses, in a deliberate imitation of the narrative scenes on the Trajan column in Rome. At Bishapur the king also inaugurated the Sassanid imagery of the king's investiture, which would be copied by his successors: the king and the god are face to face, often on horseback, and the god - usually Ahura Mazda - is holding the royal diadem out to the sovereign.
The city, as the remarkable dam bridge in Shushtar, was built by Roman soldiers who had been captured after Valerian's defeat in 260. However, it was not a completely new settlement: archaeologists have found remains from the Parthian and Elamite ages.
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