Goldie Ghamari - The Shah's 2500-year celebration of Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire. Persepolis, Iran (1971)

00:00:00.000 Persia, a land of barren mountain and burning desert, a harsh land in which the climate is

00:00:09.160 sparing in its bounties, an ancient land which is the meeting point between east and west,

00:00:16.900 between Russia and India, between Arabia and the Caspian Sea. Iranians call it Iran,

00:00:24.600 Their soft and musical language, Persian 0.99

00:00:28.880 On the rim of the country's dead heart

00:00:32.120 The old enemy, sand, sand, sand

00:00:38.980 They're flowered under its powder blue skies

00:00:43.140 A wonder in the story of mankind

00:00:54.600 beautiful women in a land blessed to this day with beautiful women inspired the miniature

00:01:14.200 painters brushes women with silvery voices and melting eyes eyes like the eyes of the gazelle

00:01:23.080 which leaps over the tarnished gold of the mountainsides.

00:01:29.640 Over the centuries grew palaces and mosques

00:01:32.760 which still dazzle the eye.

00:01:41.500 In Persian gardens scented with jasmine,

00:01:45.020 the lotus flowers bloomed

00:01:46.360 and the nightingales serenaded lovers to their dreamlands.

00:01:49.860 Persia was the inspiration of Omar Khayyam and the Thousand and One Nights.

00:02:11.860 In later centuries, conquerors trampled on its heritage.

00:02:15.860 But through golden ages, the spirit of Persia has always triumphed.

00:02:21.860 In this world of beauty was born more than five centuries before Christ,

00:02:27.860 the mightiest empire in the then history of the world.

00:02:45.860 The first capital was here, in Passargat.

00:03:15.860 In celebration of 2,500 years of nationhood, the Persian people, led by their Shah,

00:03:31.160 His Imperial Majesty Mohammed Reza Pallavi Arya Meir Shah and Shah,

00:03:36.520 make homage at the tomb of Cyrus the Great, the first Shah of all.

00:03:45.860 Cyrus, king of kings, champion long before Magna Carta of human rights and liberties.

00:04:01.280 Cyrus, the Lord's anointed of the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament.

00:04:07.060 Cyrus, the founder of Persian culture and the father of Iran, the land, five times the size of Great Britain. 0.95

00:04:15.860 which this Shah rules today.

00:04:21.240 In solemnly dedicating himself to the memory of his predecessor,

00:04:25.140 the Shah was keeping a promise he had made ten years earlier.

00:04:29.740 As he left the tomb to join his empress and his ten-year-old son,

00:04:34.000 the crown prince, he was filled with a sense of occasion.

00:04:38.740 It had fallen to him, after a twilight in his nation's long history,

00:04:42.900 to remind the world and his own people of Persian pride.

00:05:12.900 The king of Hachaman Shib, the king of Iran, from the side of me, the king of Iran, and from the side of my country.

00:05:34.900 O Cyrus, great king, king of kings, Hachamanian king, king of the land of Iran, I, the Shah-Nshah of Iran, offer thee salutations from myself and from my nation.

00:05:52.820 At this glorious moment in the history of Iran

00:05:57.600 I and all Iranians

00:06:00.520 The offspring of the empire which thou founded

00:06:03.900 2,500 years ago

00:06:06.700 Bow our heads in reverence

00:06:09.300 Before thy tomb

00:06:11.340 We cherish

00:06:14.300 Thy undying memory

00:06:16.880 You are not suggesting that we are in lack.

00:06:25.160 And if you like yours, please declare in time!

00:06:31.880 The fullest of my life, devoted to the heroes,

00:06:42.300 PYM JBZ

00:07:12.300 ...

00:07:40.300 ...

00:07:41.300 In the middle of October 1971, 62 heads of state or their direct representatives converged

00:07:56.300 on the airport of the fairytale city of Shiraz, set in the desert beside the Persian Gulf.

00:08:11.300 I don't know.

00:08:41.300 in a patchwork of color in a whirl of salutes bowels and curtsies familiar faces in the world

00:09:00.620 scene stepped out of their aircraft over red carpets fringed with guards of honor

00:09:06.100 into the welcoming Persian sunlight.

00:09:09.700 It was just like this.

00:09:12.620 Too much was happening to pick out the detail.

00:09:16.060 For all the arrivals, ceremony and protocol had to be carefully observed.

00:09:21.300 None who were there saw it all.

00:09:24.940 So began one of the most historic cultural gatherings the world has ever seen.

00:09:29.840 The flags of the guest nations flew in salute as the VIPs flew in.

00:09:36.840 This was no party of the year, it was the celebration of 25 centuries.

00:09:59.840 Throughout the day, escorted cars drove out through Shiraz into the desert

00:10:11.660 towards the ruined palace of the great kings of antiquity,

00:10:15.060 the historic birthplace of the Persian Empire.

00:10:18.580 The guests were traveling to a reception without precedent,

00:10:22.360 even in the days of Cyrus the Great.

00:10:29.840 Their camp, if you can call it a camp, was shaped like a star with five wings branching

00:10:38.340 out from the royal pavilion to represent the five continents.

00:10:42.720 Each head of state had an apartment with a sitting room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms

00:10:46.660 and a service room with an electric stove and ironing board for their entourage.

00:11:06.660 The Shah had personally supervised all the preparations.

00:11:09.660 In sight of the ruins of the great palace of his predecessors,

00:11:12.660 which had taken 187 years to build,

00:11:15.660 build. The complex of new building was a major piece of construction, even for modern times.

00:11:22.780 One day it is thought that it might become a super hotel for wealthy tourists.

00:11:29.980 The great hand weavers of Persian carpets had been using their uncanny skill to make portraits

00:11:34.940 in silk of each of the distinguished guests. The portraits were to be hung in their sitting rooms.

00:11:40.860 As the famous men and women matched their pictures with their presence,

00:11:44.300 they were given an excited greeting. Persia was in gala mood.

00:12:01.300 The villagers had heard on radio and television

00:12:05.300 that the great people of the world were coming to honor their country.

00:12:10.300 A country which had ruled in the past what was the then-known Earth.

00:12:17.300 A country which, after centuries of apathy, their Shah was determined to lead into the 20th century.

00:12:26.300 He began by inviting the world to stop, look and listen.

00:12:31.300 the modern world had half forgotten persia's place on the map the best beginning for the future was to

00:12:42.580 sound the trumpets and recall the persian people to the glories of their own past what happened

00:12:49.620 and was assuredly unforgettable.

00:12:52.620 Throughout the day and into the night, the Shah was in constant attendance on the newly

00:13:20.940 arriving guests. His hand, for a hundred times, was stretched in welcome.

00:13:50.940 Looking at these scenes, a poker player might well reflect that here is that rare hand in cards, which is called a royal flush.

00:14:20.940 leaders whom we all recognize had a unique opportunity for relaxed conversation

00:14:33.120 well perhaps not now with the tv cameras looking on but others were talking elsewhere

00:14:38.600 an international congress of 250 scholars were already in session at shiraz the papers they

00:14:47.660 read on Persian culture were to be published and circulated to research

00:14:51.380 institutes throughout the world. Such a brain's trust of Persian study had never 0.98

00:14:56.640 been collected before.

00:15:03.600 In Shiraz, where there is a garden appropriately named Garden of Paradise,

00:15:09.020 the lights twinkled like diamonds, like the bubbles in a glass of champagne.

00:15:17.660 Thank you.

00:15:47.660 It is not often that a state occasion like this has been shown to the world, not often, if ever.

00:16:11.000 But so many leaders of state have been gathered together simply to honor an anniversary in the history of a civilization.

00:16:19.000 In the state reception room of the Royal Pavilion in Persepolis move people who influence the destiny of mankind.

00:16:27.000 The order of precedence, the etiquette of who sits where and who leads who to dinner call for all the skills of diplomacy.

00:16:41.000 ORGAN PLAYS

00:17:11.000 Your Majesties, Honorable Presidents of Republics,

00:17:28.000 Highnesses, Eminences, Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,

00:17:36.000 the Shah was proposing the toast of his guests.

00:17:40.000 Look at some of them.

00:17:45.000 In our gathering this evening, past history is linked with the realities of today.

00:17:51.000 Such a bond of past and present, achieved by understanding and friendship, is surely an omen of good.

00:18:10.000 On the following evening, the guests moved out into the star-spangled Persian night toward

00:18:17.660 Persepolis, the ruined palace of Cyrus' successor, Darius and his son Xerxes.

00:18:25.580 Alexander the Great, the conqueror who reduced it to a shell, is said to have needed 10,000

00:18:32.560 mules and 6,000 camels to remove the treasures which were housed in the precincts.

00:18:40.000 The climax for the royal guests was a sans-lumière among the great stones, where it all happened.

00:18:48.880 From the tomb in the mountainside overlooking the palace where he ruled 500 years before Christ,

00:18:55.480 the voice of Darius the Great speaks again.

00:18:59.580 Open! 0.88

00:19:03.160 Open the gates guarded by winged bulls with human heads.

00:19:10.000 And now comes the procession of the Ambassadors, their beards and ringlets, their hair curled.

00:19:32.300 A long procession towards the stairways of stone and black marble, guarded by the lances

00:19:38.100 of our royal guard, the 10,000 immortals. 0.92

00:19:41.860 The long train of the horsemen from the steps 0.99

00:19:44.320 of the Arab camel drivers moving toward the tall forest 1.00

00:19:47.980 of stone columns that reach to the sky 0.60

00:19:51.240 in a gesture of prayer.

00:19:56.380 The Iolians and the Aeolians, living on land and sea,

00:20:01.600 bring you their rams and amber chalices. 0.88

00:20:08.100 And when I reconquered Cyprus and the Greek colonies of Asia, I too left them all their liberties. 0.81

00:20:33.100 Ahura Mazda has dained through the words of my mouth

00:20:37.140 to allow his image to cohabit with those of the Greek gods on coins.

00:21:03.100 Thank you.

00:21:33.100 ¶¶

00:22:03.100 Long, long ago, the ancient Persians invented the postal system with relays of horsemen bringing news from the distant outposts of empire.

00:22:33.100 Today, in the company of his guests, in the long shadow of the ruins of Persepolis,

00:22:39.100 messengers of good omen bring the Shah the greetings of his Senate in Tehran.

00:22:45.100 Today we submit to history the account of the past 2,500 years and we firmly believe

00:23:08.580 that the balance is proudly to our credit. 0.97

00:23:38.580 Persia is on parade, a parade of the great warriors of Persian history, led by the prehistoric

00:24:05.000 men in skins who were the first of all.

00:24:17.000 Here are the war chariots of the Archimenean kings who conquered and civilized the ancient world,

00:24:23.000 whose trumpets were a call of peace.

00:24:35.000 Thank you.

00:25:05.000 These were the Persian infantry with wicker shields, sons of Cyrus and Darius, who ruled so many peoples, but awarded them all the rights of free men.

00:25:23.580 There were no slaves in the Persian Empire.

00:25:35.000 Thank you.

00:26:05.000 For more than 10 years, archaeological experts studying the records which remain pieced together

00:26:26.340 how the old warriors must have looked.

00:26:28.160 No stirrups for the cavalry.

00:26:30.440 Stirrups were invented centuries later.

00:26:32.380 Every historic detail in this parade, so far as we can know today, is exact.

00:26:54.360 This wooden fortress, pulled by a span of oxen, was one of the first siege weapons.

00:27:02.380 Thank you.

00:27:33.200 In these frail oared boats, armies whose soldiers and wagon train were said to have stretched 28 miles, crossed the Mediterranean. 0.77

00:27:43.760 Over the centuries, through dynasties that have spread long before Christ of modern times, Persia has prevailed. 0.88

00:27:52.140 Conquerors from the time of Alexander have adopted Persian ways.

00:27:57.080 The spirit of the country has risen again and again.

00:28:02.380 The trumpets have never ceased sounding.

00:28:06.380 During the next 500 years, years in which the Great Wall of China was built,

00:28:34.500 in which Hannibal crossed the Alps

00:28:37.440 and Julius Caesar conquered Gaul.

00:28:41.040 These were the Parthian soldiers of the Arsacid dynasty.

00:29:04.500 Thank you.

00:29:34.500 Thank you. 0.70

00:30:04.500 The Sassanians, with their sugar loaf hats, which is still worn in Persia today, 0.73

00:30:11.340 followed during the centuries when Mohammed founded Islam, 0.94

00:30:15.100 and the powers of ancient Rome sank into final decline. 1.00

00:30:34.500 The Saffirits ruled Persia in the age 0.99

00:31:04.420 when Charlemagne was crowned the Holy Roman Emperor in 800 A.D. 0.95

00:31:09.420 The Dilemites were contemporaries of William the Conqueror, the Battle of Hastings, 1066 and all that. 0.95

00:31:39.420 Columbus was discovering America when the Safavids were on the march. 0.75

00:32:09.420 The Afsharits were a short-lived dynasty in Persian terms 1.00

00:32:17.080 who belonged to the time when Barney Prince Charlie

00:32:19.620 raised the flag of the Stuart Rebellion in Scotland. 1.00

00:32:39.420 The Afsharits mounted muskets on swivels on their camels. 0.99

00:33:09.420 The Zans, although they can scarcely have heard about it, fought their battles at the time of the Declaration of American Independence. 1.00

00:33:39.420 The style of their uniform shows that the Cajas belong to the Napoleonic era. 0.77

00:34:09.420 Thank you. 0.72

00:34:39.420 The armed services of the latest to the present dynasty in Persia, the Pallavi, gather for a grand assembly.

00:34:57.840 The world is looking on. 0.93

00:35:09.420 These are the household troops of the Shah. 0.58

00:35:32.420 Here is the new army which the Shah has created to develop literacy, health and international development.

00:35:38.420 a peace army to fight poverty, hunger, and social injustice.

00:35:44.420 A great international cause in which Persia wishes to play her part.

00:36:08.420 Thank you.

00:36:38.420 Thank you.

00:37:08.420 The fountains which inspired the poets, philosophers and thinkers of this old land centuries ago

00:37:30.540 whisper their watery music.

00:37:33.040 as the flags drift in the evening breeze

00:37:40.680 after the formalities of the state reception

00:37:43.580 the shah and his empress invite his guests

00:37:47.120 to a traditional persian party

00:37:49.120 the way it works is that he doesn't sit down himself

00:38:01.860 Moving among his guests, he makes them all happy

00:38:05.860 The music and the food are traditional

00:38:31.860 It wouldn't have been complete without the dancing girls.

00:39:01.860 It could have been the first occasion in most of the VIP's lives 0.99

00:39:26.360 that so many of them who are normally whisked about in plush limousines

00:39:30.620 have crowded into coaches but what coaches they were carrying them from the pavilions

00:39:37.580 at Persepolis to the airport at Shiraz then by air to Tehran the modern capital of Persia

00:39:53.100 just in case they were still hungry confections were served on the way

00:40:00.620 Thank you.

00:40:30.620 In the aircraft, the Shah had brief moments in which he was on his own,

00:40:49.180 with time to look at what he was saying about the celebrations in the newspapers.

00:40:52.660 From a headquarters in Persepolis, the press was tapping and typing comments to the world.

00:41:22.660 For most of them it was a surprise to discover how the new Persia was evolving.

00:41:33.660 They only remembered the old, when Persia had slept. 0.93

00:41:39.660 The organization of the Great Parade was in itself an eye-opener. 0.98

00:41:43.660 The celebrations were the signal that the flame of Persia was burning again. 0.98

00:41:49.660 Great nations come and go. 0.55

00:41:52.660 A century ago, Persia had been of no importance except to historians, romanticists, and students of archaeology.

00:42:01.660 Look at her now.

00:42:03.660 She is making her challenge to join the new world. 0.66

00:42:09.660 Her greatest enemy is illiteracy.

00:42:12.660 She has started to beat it by building 4,000 new schools in a year.

00:42:17.660 schools for adults as well as children her other enemy is her scarcity of water

00:42:27.380 by building great dams persia's water too is being brought under control

00:42:32.820 she is moving fast into heavy industry the country has to do a lot yet to catch up

00:42:40.280 industrially with the western world but one of the wonders of her is that this old sleeping beauty

00:42:46.280 is now awake.

00:42:49.940 So much is happening so quickly.

00:42:55.080 Her modern spirit was first aroused 0.57

00:42:58.120 during the reign of the present Shah's father.

00:43:02.380 During the celebrations of the 2,500 anniversary,

00:43:06.460 his son remembered him.

00:43:08.520 in tehran the cavalcade of cars swept towards the mausoleum of reza shah the great

00:43:18.840 his son wished to do honor to the memory of his father the ceremony was solemn and short

00:43:26.480 most of us would wish to pay our own respects to our own fathers his own had founded a new

00:43:34.200 in Persia. The Persian people already call him Reza the Great.

00:44:04.200 After that, the climax of the celebrations.

00:44:24.440 The first glimpse of the floodlit monument outside the airport of Tehran in honor of the present Shah.

00:44:34.200 Below the monument is a museum of Persian art and a cinema.

00:44:40.420 To open it?

00:44:42.220 Well, what would you expect?

00:45:04.200 Let's stand by Yep

00:45:19.300 It's good

00:45:24.800 Thank you

00:45:27.820 I can do so many.

00:45:44.000 I can do this.

00:45:46.480 Yes, it's the fifth.

00:45:47.900 In fact, Bo Bo, don't go.

00:45:50.420 So much money.

00:45:51.520 On the last day of the celebrations, there was a spectacular to mark the inauguration

00:46:16.520 of a vast new sports stadium in Tehran designed to seat 100,000 people.

00:46:22.240 As the Shah arrived, they seemed to be all there.

00:46:46.520 Thank you. 0.99

00:47:16.520 Swinging heavy clubs is a traditional sport.

00:47:46.520 The strongmen of Persia pride themselves on their muscular development.

00:48:16.520 Thank you.

00:48:46.520 Thank you.

00:49:16.520 Thank you.

00:49:46.520 .

00:49:52.500 .

00:50:05.640 .

00:50:09.520 .

00:50:12.240 Notice that the soldiers are doing their arms drill without orders to the music of the Viennese waltz.

00:50:42.240 Towards the end of the celebrations, the Shah heard an address from the religious representatives of the world,

00:51:06.020 a confirmation that religious tolerance should be extended to all men.

00:51:11.740 Not all countries accept it.

00:51:13.740 In ancient tradition, Persia does.

00:51:36.020 As the VIPs said their goodbyes, they left behind them, each in their own language, and over their own famous names, a message of goodwill.

00:51:48.020 In our world, we might call them bread-and-butter letters.

00:51:53.560 In Persia's world, they remember the words of their great poet and thinker, Sadi, who 700 years ago wrote,

00:52:02.740 If ambitious of a great name, make a practice of munificence, for the crop will not shoot till thou shalt sow the seed.

00:52:32.740 Thank you.

00:53:02.740 Thank you.

00:53:32.740 In Tehran, the new monument

00:54:00.080 is likely to become as familiar as London's Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower of Paris, the New

00:54:05.080 York Statue of Liberty.

00:54:09.080 Symbol des grandes fêtes de l'Iran, ce cylindre en argile cuite de Cyrus proclame que c'est

00:54:17.080 ici que pour la première fois les droits de l'homme devinrent loi.

00:54:30.080 Thank you.

00:55:00.080 We'll be right back.

Goldie Ghamari - October 26, 2025

The Shah's 2500-year celebration of Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire. Persepolis, Iran (1971)

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