Griffin-like Huma bird capital statuary, from about 500 BC in Persepolis, Fars Province, Iran

---

Wikipedia: The Huma, also Homa, is a mythical bird of Iranian legends and fables, and continuing as a common motif in Sufi and Diwan poetry. Although there are many legends of the creature, common to all is that the bird is said never to alight on the ground, and instead to live its entire life flying invisibly high above the earth. There are numerous folk interpretations of the name, among them that of the Sufi teacher Inayat Khan, who supposed that "in the word Huma, hu represents spirit, and the word mah originates from the Arabic 'Maʼa' ماء which means water."

---

Size: 5458px × 3381px
Location: Persepolis, Fars Province, Iran
Photo credit: © Bert de Ruiter / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: achaemenid, archeology, architecture, bert, bird, capital, ceremonial, column, complex, darius, de, empire, fars, griffin, griffin-, head, heritage, historic, historical, homa, horizontal, huma, iran, jamshī, landscape, mythical, persepolis, platform, province, remains, ruins, ruiter, site, statuary, statue, style, takht-, travel, twin-headed, world