Behistun inscription, Rock relief and inscription in Harsin County, Iran.
The Behistun Inscription is carved into a limestone cliff at Mount Behistun in Kermanshah Province. A large panel shows Darius I life-size, bow in hand, his foot on the chest of the pretender Gaumata, with the winged figure of Ahura Mazda above and nine bound captives about a metre tall to the right. Cuneiform text in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian fills the spaces between the figures.
Darius I commissioned the inscription between 522 and 486 BCE to record his military victories and establish his claim to the Persian throne. Later, in the 19th century, the inscriptions were systematically documented and contributed to deciphering cuneiform script.
The name Behistun comes from Ancient Greek and Arabic sources, transliterated by Henry Rawlinson in the 19th century; the modern Persian name is Bisotun, from Old Persian Bagastana, "the place of god". The relief shows Darius with his left foot on the pretender Gaumata, attended by the spear-bearer Gobryas and the archer Aspathines, while nine bound figures about one metre tall stand to the right. A winged disc floats above the king.
The relief is only visible from a distance with binoculars or telephoto lenses, as it sits high on the rock face and is not publicly accessible. The best time for photography is morning, when light brings out the script and relief more clearly.
The inscription served as a key to decoding ancient cuneiform writing systems through its parallel texts in three different languages. Scholars were able to compare the three versions and work out the meaning of individual characters.
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