Susa [key], ancient city, capital of Elam. The site is 15 mi (23 km) SW of modern Dizful, Iran. It is the biblical Shushan, and its inhabitants were called Susanchites. From the 4th millennium b.c., Elam was under the cultural influence of Mesopotamia. Excavations at Susa uncovered the stele of Naram-sin and the code of Hammurabi, which were among the many art objects carried off by the Elamites from Babylonia. Destroyed in the 7th cent. b.c. by Assurbanipal, Susa was revived in the empire of the Achaemenid rulers of Persia. Darius I and Artaxerxes I built magnificent winter palaces in the city. Susa was later thoroughly Hellenized and continued prominent in the Roman Empire.
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