Architecture of Sovereignty and the Semiotics of Farr: Persepolis as a Site of the Visibility of Power.

The relationship between political authority and visual culture has occupied a central place in the formation of ancient civilizations. Within the Iranian cultural sphere, however, sovereignty was rarely understood as a purely administrative or military phenomenon. Instead, royal authority emerged through a complex synthesis of sacred legitimacy, aesthetic manifestation, architectural staging, and mythological imagination. This article investigates the relationship between the mythological throne of Jamshid and the monumental architecture of Persepolis, examining how Iranian traditions transformed abstract notions of royal glory into visible and material forms. Particular attention is given to the concept of Farr (Khvarenah), a sacred radiance associated with legitimate kingship in Iranian religious and literary traditions. Drawing upon art history, archaeology, semiotics, mythology, visual culture studies, and phenomenology of space, the article explores how architecture functioned as an instrument for producing visibility, distance, hierarchy, and ceremonial power. Rather than treating Persepolis solely as an administrative center of the Achaemenid Empire, the study interprets it as a carefully designed visual machine intended to transform political authority into an experience of sacred spectacle. The research further examines how decorative arts, precious materials, relief sculpture, and ceremonial architecture contributed to the materialization of otherwise invisible concepts such as divine favor, cosmic order, and royal legitimacy. The article also investigates the persistence of collective memory that linked the ruins of Persepolis with the legendary figure of Jamshid. Through this process of mythic attribution, historical architecture became integrated into the broader symbolic universe of Iranian cultural imagination. By analyzing both archaeological evidence and literary traditions, the study argues that Persepolis represents not merely a royal residence but a monumental theater of visibility in which architecture, image, ritual, and myth converged. The findings suggest that Iranian concepts of sovereignty relied heavily upon aesthetic mediation. Power became effective not only through governance but through its capacity to be seen, imagined, and experienced as an embodiment of cosmic order. Persepolis thus stands as one of the most sophisticated examples of the visual construction of authority in the ancient world.