Reproduction of relief from southwest side of the Palace of Darius, Persepolis, captioned: "The king's battle with the heavenly griffin, a hybrid composed of a bull, lion, scorpion and eagle." Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire founded by Darius. In 515 BC he began construction of his palace, the Apadana. His son Xerxes I completed it 30 years later. Persepolis was sacked by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. The griffin is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and an eagle's talons as its front feet. As the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle was the king of the birds, the griffin was thought to be the king of the creatures. While griffins are most common in the art and lore of Ancient Greece, there is evidence of representations of griffins in Ancient Persian and Ancient Egyptian art as far back as 3,300 BC.