Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon was an ancient city in modern , on the eastern bank of the , about 35 kilometres southeast of . Ctesiphon served as a royal capital of the Iranian empires for over eight hundred years, in the Parthian and Sasanian periods.
Wikipedia
Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
  • Type: Archaeological site
  • Description: capital of the Iranian empire in the Parthian and Sasanian eras in present Iraq
  • Also known as: “Al Madain”, “Al-Mada’in”, “Al-Madain”, “Arch of Ctesiphon”, “Ctesifon”, “El-Medain”, “Ktesifono”, “Ktesifonto”, “Kteszifon”, “Kteszifón”, “Ktesziphon”, “Ktésziphon”, “Ktezyfont”, “Madain”, “Madayn”, “Mahoze”, “Mahuza”, “Medain”, “Medayin”, “Mədain”, “Mint of Ctesiphon”, “Seleucia”, “Selêucia-Ctesifonte”, “Seleucia-Ctesiphon”, “Seleukeia am Tigris”, “Seleukia am Tigris”, “Seleukia-Ktesifon”, “Selevkia-Ktesifon”, “Ţāq Kisrá”, “Taysafun”, “Tisfûn”, “Tizbon”, “Tyspawn”, “Tyspwn”, “Мадаин”, “Тизбон”, “קטיספון”, “تيسفون”, “تېسیفون”, “سپين”, “سپين ـ زبان ساس”, “سلوقية-قطيسفون”, “طیسفون”, “قطسيفون”, “قطيسنون”, “ماهوزه”, “ܩܛܐܝܣܦܐܢ”, “ܩܛܐܝܣܦܘܢ”, “ܩܛܣܝܦܘܢ”, “克特西封”, and “塞琉西亞-泰西封”

Places of Interest Nearby

Highlights: Taq Kasra and Salman Al-Muhammadi Shrine.

Monument
Photo: Safa.daneshvar, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Tāq Kasrā, also transcribed as Taq-i Kisra or Taq-e… is situated 1¼ km north of Ctesiphon.

Tomb
The Mosque of Salman al-Farsi is a located… is situated 1½ km north of Ctesiphon.

Places in the Area

Nearby places include Ctesiphon.

Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
is a ruin in .

Ctesiphon

Latitude
33.08333° or 33° 5′ north
Longitude
44.58333° or 44° 35′ east
Elevation
35 metres (115 feet)
Open location code
8H563HMM+88
Geo­Names ID
90287
Wiki­data ID
Q192541
This page is based on GeoNames, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikipedia.
We’d love your help improving our open data sources. Thank you for contributing.

Satellite Map

Discover this place from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
© Stadia Maps, Airbus DS, CNES, PlanetObserver, and Copernicus

In Other Languages

From Afrikaans to Yue Chinese—“Ctesiphon” goes by many names.
  • Afrikaans: “Ktesifon”
  • Ancient Greek (to 1453): “Κτησιφῶν”
  • Arabic: “طاق كسرى”
  • Arabic: “طيسفون”
  • Arabic: “قطيسفون”
  • Armenian: “Տիզբոն”
  • Azerbaijani: “Ktesifon”
  • Basque: “Ktesifon”
  • Belarusian: “Ктэсіфон”
  • Bengali: “তিসফুন”
  • Bosnian: “Ktesifon”
  • Breton: “Ktesiphon”
  • Bulgarian: “Ктезифон”
  • Catalan: “Ctesifont”
  • Cebuano: “Ctesiphon”
  • Central Kurdish: “تیسفۆن”
  • Chinese: “泰西封”
  • Croatian: “Ktezifont”
  • Czech: “Ktésifón”
  • Danish: “Ctesiphon”
  • Danish: “Ktesifon”
  • Dutch: “Ctesiphon”
  • Egyptian Arabic: “قطيسفون”
  • Esperanto: “Seleŭkio-Ktesifono”
  • Estonian: “Ktesiphon”
  • Finnish: “Ktesifon”
  • French: “Ctésiphon”
  • Galician: “Ctesifonte”
  • Georgian: “ქტესიფონი”
  • German: “Seleukeia-Ktesiphon”
  • German: “Seleukia-Ktesiphon”
  • Greek: “Κτησιφών”
  • Hebrew: “קטסיפון”
  • Hindi: “क्टेसिफॉन”
  • Hindi: “तेसिफ़ोन”
  • Hungarian: “Ktésziphón”
  • Indonesian: “Ctesiphon”
  • Indonesian: “Tisfon”
  • Irish: “Ctesiphon”
  • Italian: “Ctesifonte”
  • Japanese: “クテシフォン”
  • Javanese: “Ctesiphon”
  • Kannada: “ಟೆಸಿಫಾನ್”
  • Korean: “크테시폰”
  • Kurdish: “Tîsfûn”
  • Kurdish: “تیسفوون”
  • Latin: “Ctesiphon”
  • Latvian: “Ktēsifona”
  • Lithuanian: “Ktesifonas”
  • Malagasy: “Ktesifôna”
  • Malay: “Tisfun”
  • Malayalam: “സെലൂക്യാ-ക്ടെസിഫോൺ”
  • Mazanderani: “تیسفون”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Ktesifon”
  • Norwegian: “Ktesifon”
  • Occitan (post 1500): “Ctesifont”
  • Official Aramaic (700-300 BCE): “ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢ”
  • Persian: “تیسفون”
  • Polish: “Ktezyfon”
  • Portuguese: “Ctesifonte”
  • Pushto: “تیسفون”
  • Romanian: “Ctesiphon”
  • Russian: “Ктесифон”
  • Scots: “Ctesiphon”
  • Serbian: “Ктесифон”
  • Serbo-Croatian: “Ktesifon”
  • Slovak: “Ktésifon”
  • Slovak: “Ktésifón”
  • Slovenian: “Ktezifon”
  • South Azerbaijani: “تیسفون”
  • Spanish: “Ctesifonte”
  • Swahili: “Ktesiphon”
  • Swedish: “Ktesifon”
  • Tagalog: “Ctesifonte”
  • Tajik: “Тайсафун”
  • Tajik: “Тай­са­фун”
  • Tatar: “Тисфун”
  • Thai: “เทซีฟอน”
  • Turkish: “Tizpon”
  • Ukrainian: “Ктезифон”
  • Urdu: “تیسفون”
  • Urdu: “مدائن”
  • Uzbek: “Ktesifon”
  • Vietnamese: “Ctesiphon”
  • Waray (Philippines): “Ctesiphon”
  • Welsh: “Ctesiphon”
  • Western Armenian: “Տիզբոն”
  • Wu Chinese: “泰西封”
  • Yue Chinese: “泰西封”

Places with the Same Name

Discover other places named “Ctesiphon”.

Localities in the Area

Places to explore: Ali an Nadi and ‘Abd ar Raḩmān.

Nearby Places

Places to explore: Ḩudhayfah and Sa‘d Bin Waqqāş.

Iraq: Must-Visit Destinations

Worth a closer look: Baghdad and Babylon.

Curious Archaeological Sites to Discover

Uncover intriguing archaeological sites from every corner of the globe.