Behistun Inscription

The Behistun Inscription is a monumental carved relief and trilingual cuneiform inscription commissioned by the Achaemenid king Darius I around 520 BCE. It is cut into a limestone cliff on the ancient route between Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau and was crucial to deciphering cuneiform.

The site includes a large figural relief showing the king and his defeated foes alongside long inscription panels in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian. Scholars in the 19th century used the parallel texts to unlock Old Persian and then other cuneiform languages.

The monument was carved into a steep cliff face and historically required access by ladders or scaffolding; it remains accessible today by a path below the cliffs and is a major archaeological landmark near Kermanshah.

Geographically it lies in western Iran along the slopes of the Zagros foothills, approximately 30 km north of the city of Kermanshah, overlooking the ancient pass that linked Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau.

• Date and significance: Created around 520 BCE by order of Darius I and carved into a cliff face, it provided the key text used to decipher cuneiform scripts.
• Languages: Inscribed in three languages - Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian (Akkadian) - which enabled linguistic breakthroughs in the 19th century.

What to See #

• Main Darius relief: The main Achaemenid relief carved on the limestone cliff showing Darius I with bound figures and attendants, the focal point of the monument.
• Trilingual cuneiform inscription: Multilingual cuneiform inscription in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian (Akkadian) that runs for many lines alongside the relief and records Darius's account.