One of the most remarkable cities of Sasanian Iran was Ardašīr-Xwarrah, the first royal city of the empire founded by Ardašīr I in 224 AD. While historical texts and archaeological surveys only provide details about the ruined architectural monuments of the complex, the circular-concentric layout of the city has been the subject of several speculative interpretations. The premise of this article is to question the cosmological significance of Ardašīr-Xwarrah’s layout. Then, in order to elucidate the ‘meaning’ of urban form in this city, the article offers a rigorous analysis of cosmological and geopolitical structure of the empire, whilst also taking into account the existing historical and archaeological data. Since the cosmological principles of the layout cannot be recovered from known historical documents, a number of hypothetical explanations of the city’s layout are proposed. It is argued that analysis of Sasanian cities should be based on more objective and rigorous methods in order to contribute to the knowledge of ancient urban planning in Iran.

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