East Kurdistan · Rojhelat · Persian, Roman & Sasanian
Bisotun Inscription
A relief and inscription carved high on a cliff on the ancient road from Mesopotamia to Iran — the key that unlocked cuneiform.
UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Period
- c. 520 BC
- Place
- Near Kirmaşan (Kermanshah)
- Region
- East Kurdistan · Rojhelat
- Age
- Persian, Roman & Sasanian
Around 520 BC the Persian king Darius I had his victory carved into Mount Bisotun, some sixty metres above the road, in three languages: Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian. In the nineteenth century scholars copied it at great risk from the cliff face and used it, like the Rosetta Stone, to read the cuneiform script of ancient Mesopotamia.
Around the mountain lie remains from prehistory to the Sasanians and later. Bisotun has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2006.
Chosen and introduced by Aram Mizuri, architect in Erbil