Bisotun: the inscription of Darius I

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What UNESCO says

According to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre page (inscribed 2006), Bisotun lies in western Iran's Kermanshah province, along the ancient trade route linking the Iranian high plateau with Mesopotamia, and features remains from prehistoric times to the Median, Achaemenid, Sassanian and Ilkhanid periods. The principal monument is the bas-relief and cuneiform inscription ordered by Darius I, the Great, when he rose to the throne of the Persian Empire, 521 BC. Source 1.

The relief and the inscription

The bas-relief portrays Darius holding a bow, as a sign of sovereignty, and treading on the chest of a figure who lies on his back before him; according to legend, UNESCO writes, the figure represents Gaumata, the Median Magus and pretender to the throne whose assassination led to Darius's rise to power. Below and around the bas-reliefs there are about 1,200 lines of inscriptions telling the story of the battles Darius waged in 521-520 BC against the governors who attempted to take apart the Empire founded by Cyrus. Source 1.

Three languages

According to the page, the oldest version is an Elamite text referring to legends describing the king and the rebellions; it is followed by a Babylonian version of similar legends; and in the last phase of the inscription Darius introduced for the first time the Old Persian version of his res gestae. UNESCO adds that this is the only known monumental text of the Achaemenids to document the re-establishment of the Empire by Darius I, and that the inscription, with three versions of the same text in three different languages, was the first cuneiform writing to be deciphered, in the 19th century. Source 1.

What can and cannot be said

"Only known" and "first to be deciphered" are UNESCO's statements, and this page gives them as such. The page does not say who deciphered the inscription or how, and it does not give the text itself; "according to legend" in the identification of Gaumata is the page's own wording, not a reading of the inscription checked here. 521 BC falls within the site's Achaemenid Iran. Bisotun also appears on this site in the article on Laodicea at Nahavand, whose authors compare a column base found there with "the Ionic column base from Bisotun". Sources 1, 2.

Scope of reading: UNESCO's World Heritage page on Bisotun was read on 24 October 2026. Editions and translations of the inscription and the history of its decipherment were not read; this page gives no reading or translation.