Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon was an ancient city in modern Iraq, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, about 35 kilometres southeast of Baghdad. Ctesiphon served as a royal capital of the Iranian empires for over eight hundred years, in the Parthian and Sasanian periods.| Tap on a place to explore it |
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-Mada’in”, “Arch of Ctesiphon”, “Mahoze”, “Mahuza”, and “Ţāq Kisrá”
Places of Interest Nearby
Highlights include Taq Kasra and Salman Al-Muhammadi Shrine.
Taq Kasra
Monument
Photo: Safa.daneshvar, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Tāq Kasrā, also transcribed as Taq-i Kisra or Taq-e Kesra or Ayvān-e Kesrā are the remains of a Sasanian-era Persian monument, dated to c. the 3rd to 6th centuries, which is sometimes called the Arch of Ctesiphon. Taq Kasra is situated 1¼ km north of Ctesiphon.
Salman Al-Muhammadi Shrine
Tomb
The Mosque of Salman al-Farsi is a mosque located in the city of Salman Pak, Al-Mada'in district, in the province of Diyala, in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq. Salman Al-Muhammadi Shrine is situated 1½ km north of Ctesiphon.
Places in the Area
Nearby places include Ctesiphon.
Ctesiphon
Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
Ctesiphon is a ruin in Iraq's Baghdad Belts. It was once an ancient Persian capital city, but only a former palace, with the world's largest unreinforced arch, remains standing. The town of Salman Pak is nearby, and is also covered in this article.
Ctesiphon
- Categories: ancient city, tourist attraction, and tourism
- Location: Al-Mada’in District, Baghdad Governorate, Iraq, Middle East, Asia
- View on OpenStreetMap
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 Ctesiphon from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
In Other Languages
From Afrikaans to Yue Chinese—“Ctesiphon” goes by many names.
- Afrikaans: “Ktesifon”
- Ancient Greek (to 1453): “Κτησιφῶν”
- Arabic: “تيسفون”
- Arabic: “سپين”
- Arabic: “سلوقية-قطيسفون”
- Arabic: “طاق كسرى”
- Arabic: “طيسفون”
- Arabic: “قطسيفون”
- Arabic: “قطيسفون”
- Arabic: “قطيسنون”
- Armenian: “Տիզբոն”
- Azerbaijani: “Ktesifon”
- Azerbaijani: “Mədain”
- Azerbaijani: “Tizbon”
- Basque: “Ktesifon”
- Belarusian: “Ктэсіфон”
- Bengali: “তিসফুন”
- Bosnian: “Ktesifon”
- Breton: “Ktesiphon”
- Bulgarian: “Ктезифон”
- Bulgarian: “Ктесифон”
- Catalan: “Al Madain”
- Catalan: “Ctesifont”
- Catalan: “Taysafun”
- Catalan: “Tyspwn”
- Cebuano: “Ctesiphon”
- Central Kurdish: “تیسفۆن”
- Chinese: “克特西封”
- Chinese: “塞琉西亞-泰西封”
- Chinese: “泰西封”
- Croatian: “Ktesifon”
- Croatian: “Ktezifont”
- Czech: “Ktésifón”
- Danish: “Ctesiphon”
- Danish: “Ktesifon”
- Dutch: “Ctesifon”
- Dutch: “Ctesiphon”
- Dutch: “Ktesifon”
- Dutch: “Ktesiphon”
- Dutch: “Madain”
- Egyptian Arabic: “قطيسفون”
- Esperanto: “Ktesifono”
- Esperanto: “Ktesifonto”
- Esperanto: “Seleŭkio-Ktesifono”
- Estonian: “Ktesiphon”
- Finnish: “Ctesiphon”
- Finnish: “Ktesifon”
- French: “Al-Madain”
- French: “Ctesiphon”
- French: “Ctésiphon”
- French: “Madayn”
- Galician: “Ctesifonte”
- Georgian: “ქტესიფონი”
- German: “Ktesiphon”
- German: “Seleukeia am Tigris”
- German: “Seleukeia-Ktesiphon”
- German: “Seleukia am Tigris”
- German: “Seleukia-Ktesiphon”
- Greek: “Κτησιφών”
- Hebrew: “קטיספון”
- Hebrew: “קטסיפון”
- Hindi: “क्टेसिफॉन”
- Hungarian: “Ctesiphon”
- Hungarian: “Kteszifon”
- Hungarian: “Kteszifón”
- Hungarian: “Ktesziphon”
- Hungarian: “Ktésziphon”
- Hungarian: “Ktésziphón”
- Hungarian: “Ktezifon”
- Hungarian: “Mahuza”
- Indonesian: “Ctesiphon”
- Indonesian: “Tisfon”
- Irish: “Ctesiphon”
- Italian: “Ctesifonte”
- Japanese: “クテシフォン”
- Javanese: “Ctesiphon”
- Kannada: “ಟೆಸಿಫಾನ್”
- Korean: “크테시폰”
- Kurdish: “Tisfun”
- Kurdish: “Tisfûn”
- Kurdish: “Tîsfûn”
- Kurdish: “تیسفوون”
- Latin: “Ctesiphon”
- Latvian: “Ktēsifona”
- Lithuanian: “Ktesifonas”
- Malagasy: “Ktesifôna”
- Malay: “Tisfun”
- Malayalam: “സെലൂക്യാ-ക്ടെസിഫോൺ”
- Mazanderani: “تیسفون”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Ctesifon”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Ctesiphon”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Ktesifon”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Seleucia-Ctesiphon”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Seleucia”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Seleukia-Ktesifon”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Selevkia-Ktesifon”
- Norwegian: “Ktesifon”
- Occitan (post 1500): “Ctesifont”
- Official Aramaic (700-300 BCE): “ܩܛܐܝܣܦܐܢ”
- Official Aramaic (700-300 BCE): “ܩܛܐܝܣܦܘܢ”
- Official Aramaic (700-300 BCE): “ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢ”
- Official Aramaic (700-300 BCE): “ܩܛܣܝܦܘܢ”
- Persian: “تیسفون”
- Persian: “سپين ـ زبان ساس”
- Persian: “طیسفون”
- Persian: “ماهوزه”
- Persian: “مدائن”
- Polish: “Ktesifon”
- Polish: “Ktezyfon”
- Polish: “Ktezyfont”
- Portuguese: “Ctesifonte”
- Portuguese: “Selêucia-Ctesifonte”
- Portuguese: “Tyspawn”
- Pushto: “تیسفون”
- Pushto: “تېسیفون”
- Romanian: “Ctesiphon”
- Russian: “Ктесифон”
- Russian: “Мадаин”
- Russian: “Тизбон”
- Scots: “Ctesiphon”
- Serbian: “Ктесифон”
- Serbo-Croatian: “Ktesifon”
- Serbo-Croatian: “Ktezifont”
- Slovak: “Ktésifon”
- Slovak: “Ktésifón”
- Slovenian: “Ktezifon”
- South Azerbaijani: “تیسفون”
- Spanish: “Ctesifonte”
- Spanish: “Ctesiphon”
- Swahili: “Ktesiphon”
- Swedish: “Ctesiphon”
- Swedish: “Ktesifon”
- Tagalog: “Ctesifonte”
- Tagalog: “Ctesiphon”
- Tajik: “Тайсафун”
- Tajik: “Тайсафун”
- Tatar: “Тисфун”
- Thai: “เทซีฟอน”
- Turkish: “El-Medain”
- Turkish: “Ktesifon”
- Turkish: “Medain”
- Turkish: “Medayin”
- Turkish: “Tizpon”
- Ukrainian: “Ктезифон”
- Ukrainian: “Ктесифон”
- Urdu: “تیسفون”
- Urdu: “مدائن”
- Uzbek: “Ktesifon”
- Vietnamese: “Ctesiphon”
- Waray (Philippines): “Ctesiphon”
- Welsh: “Ctesiphon”
- Wu Chinese: “泰西封”
- Yue Chinese: “泰西封”
Places with the Same Name
Discover other places named “Ctesiphon”.
Localities in the Area
Explore places such as Ali an Nadi and ‘Abd ar Raḩmān.
Nearby Places
Explore places such as Ḩudhayfah and Sa‘d Bin Waqqāş.
Iraq: Must-Visit Destinations
Delve into Baghdad, Babylon, Mosul, and Basra.
Curious Archaeological Sites to Discover
Uncover intriguing archaeological sites from every corner of the globe.
About Mapcarta. Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, except for photos, directions, and the map. Description text is based on the Wikipedia page “Ctesiphon”. Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.