Chapar Khaneh
postal system of the Royal Road in Achaemenid Empire
A Chapar Khaneh (Persian: چاپارخانه, IPA: [tʃɒːˈpɒːɾ xɒːˈne], transl. 'courier house') was a postal service station in the Achaemenid Empire.
Established by Cyrus the Great and later developed by Darius the Great, the Achaemenid Empire's extensive postal service network served as the principal royal method of communication across most of the major cities of the ancient Near East. Each Chapar Khaneh was mainly located along the Royal Road, an ancient highway that was reorganized and rebuilt by Darius the Great to facilitate the rapid movement of Persian couriers between Sardis (now Turkey) in the west and Susa (now Iran) in the east.
The couriers, also known as angaros (ἄγγαρος) in Greek, alternated in stations a day's ride apart along the Royal Road. The riders were exclusively in service of the Great King, and the network allowed for messages to be transported from Susa to Sardis (2,700 km or 1,700 mi) in a matter of just nine days, as opposed to roughly 90 days on foot. Thus, a chapar was fundamentally an express courier; he would be provided with fresh supplies and horses at each station on his route, allowing him to greatly accelerate his journey by eliminating any delays associated with procuring supplies on his own or waiting for his horse to rest.
Known as the Angarium in Latin, the ancient Persians' postal system was hailed in the Greco-Roman world for its remarkable efficiency, consequently being adapted as the cursus publicus (lit. 'the public way') in the Roman Empire. Çaparhâne was used for the postal service, which provided official communication in the Ottoman Empire, and for the accommodation points of the army.
In Herodotus
Herodotus, in about 440 BC, describes the Chapar Khaneh in the Histories. His description of the Royal Road and the various Chapar Khanehs along it is in Book V:
Now the true account of the road in question is the following: Royal stations exist along its whole length, and excellent caravanserais; and throughout, it traverses an inhabited tract, and is free from danger.
“Chapar Khaneh” enters the record as postal system of the Royal Road in Achaemenid Empire. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Chapar, Khaneh and postal can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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