Bishapur. The Palace and the Town

The author reviews the evidence regarding the localization of the Palace of the Sasanian king Shabuhr I at Bishapur. Accepting the interpretation as a sacred building proposed by Massoud Azarnoush for the large complex at the NW corner of the town, the author suggests that the palce of the king must be searched for in the so-called Qal'e-ye Dokhtar, overlloking the town at its N limit and till now considered only a forteress. The reasons for this interpretation are on one side the tradition of Ardashir I, father of Shabuhr I, on the other the tradition of the Hellenistic-Roman world, which Shabuhr met during his conquest of Syria.