It was the facade of the main palace in Ctesiphon, and is the only visible remaining structure of the ancient capital city.

The archway is considered a landmark in the history of architecture,[1] and is the second largest single-span vault of unreinforced brickwork in the world after the Gavmishan Bridge in Iran.

[6] The bricks were laid about 18 degrees from the vertical which allowed them to be partially supported by the rear wall during construction.

The structure left today was the main portico of the audience hall of the Sassanids who maintained the same site chosen by the Parthians and for the same reason, namely proximity to the Roman Empire, whose expansionist aims could be better contained at the point of contact.

[1] In 1851, French artist Eugène Flandin visited and studied the structure with Pascal Coste[9] who remarked "the Romans had nothing similar or of the type.

[15] In January 2021, Iranian Minister of Cultural Heritage Ali Asghar Mounesan mentioned that a credit of about $600,000 would be required for the restoration of Taq Kasra.

The monument had been in danger of ISIS attacks in 2015–2016; Akbarzadeh feared that it might be destroyed soon, and therefore felt urgency to film his documentary.