Archaeological evidence shows that the earliest remains of Persepolis date from around 515 BC. Andre Godard, the French archaeologist who excavated Persepolis in the early 1930s, believed that Cyrus the Great chose the site of Persepolis,but that Darius the Great built the terrace and the great palaces.Darius ordered the construction of the Apadana Palace and the Debating Hall the Tripylon or three-gated hall , the main imperial Treasury and its surroundings. These were completed during the reign of his son, King Xerxes I. Further construction of the buildings on the terrace continued until the downfall of the Achaemenid dynasty.The first westerner to visit the ruins of Persepolis was Antonio de Gouveia, from Portugal, who wrote about cuneiform inscriptions following his visit in 1602. His first written report on Persia, the Jornada , was published in 1606.Achaemenid Dynasty was founded, although it was not the center of the empire at that time.