Cigarette Card

Wills’s Cigarettes “Wonders of the Past” Cigarette Card #33 “Gate of Xerxes, Persepolis”

Produced in 1926 by W. D. & H. O. Wills.

Issued by The Imperial Tobacco Company (of Great Britain & Ireland) Ltd.

Text on reverse of card reads:

“Darius I, one of the greatest of the Persian kings, founded in the sixth century B.C. the wonder city of Persepolis, and his son Xerxes further embellished it. The palaces were built on a huge rectangular platform 1,458 feet by 929 feet, and about 35 feet above the ground level – itself a stupendous work; and besides the palaces of the two kings it bore the Hypostyle Hall of Xerxes and the Hall of a Hundred Columns, probably built by Darius. This is a reconstruction of the monumental gateway erected by Xerxes at the head of the stairway to the platform.”