The tomb of Darius the Great (or

Darius I Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West A ...

) is one of the four tombs for Achaemenid kings at the historical site of

Naqsh-e Rostam Naqsh-e Rostam (; , ) is an ancient archeological site and necropolis located about 13 km northwest of Persepolis, in Fars province, Iran. A collection of ancient Iranian rock reliefs are cut into the face of the mountain and the mount ...

, located about northwest of

Persepolis Persepolis (; ; ) was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (). It is situated in the plains of Marvdasht, encircled by the southern Zagros mountains, Fars province of Iran. It is one of the key Iranian cultural heritage sites and ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. They are all situated at a considerable height above ground-level.

The tomb

One of the tombs is explicitly identified by an accompanying inscription to be the tomb of

(). The other three tombs are believed to be those of

Xerxes I Xerxes I ( – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was a List of monarchs of Persia, Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC. He was ...

(),

Artaxerxes I Artaxerxes I (, ; ) was the fifth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, from 465 to December 424 BC. He was the third son of Xerxes I. In Greek sources he is also surnamed "Long-handed" ( ''Makrókheir''; ), allegedly because his ri ...

(), and

Darius II Darius II ( ; ), also known by his given name Ochus ( ), was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 423 BC to 405 or 404 BC. Following the death of Artaxerxes I, in 424 BC or 423 BC, there was a struggle for power between his sons. The vic ...

(); the fifth tomb (incomplete) might be that of Artaxerxes III () or the last Achaemenid king,

Darius III Darius III ( ; ; – 330 BC) was the thirteenth and last Achaemenid King of Kings of Persia, reigning from 336 BC to his death in 330 BC. Contrary to his predecessor Artaxerxes IV Arses, Darius was a distant member of the Achaemenid dynasty. ...

(). The tombs were looted extensively following the conquest of Persia by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

The inscriptions

DNa inscription

An inscription by

, dating from and generally referred to as the " DNa inscription" () in scholarly works, appears in the top-left corner of the façade of his tomb and mentions his conquests as well as his various achievements. Its exact date is not known, but it is assumed to be from the last decade of his reign. Like several other of Darius' inscriptions, the territories controlled by the

Achaemenid Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the larges ...

(which reached its territorial zenith under Darius' rule) are clearly listed.

DNe inscription

The nationalities mentioned in the DNa inscription are also depicted on the upper registers of all the tombs at

(starting with the tomb of Darius I) as a group of 30 Achaemenid soldiers who are in their native clothing and bearing weapons while supporting the platform on which the

King of Kings King of Kings, ''Mepet mepe''; , group="n" was a ruling title employed primarily by monarchs based in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Commonly associated with History of Iran, Iran (historically known as name of Iran, Persia ...

stands for his devotion to Ahuramazda, the highest deity of

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zoroaster, Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, ...

.The Achaemenid Empire in South Asia and Recent Excavations in Akra in Northwest Pakistan Peter Magee, Cameron Petrie, Robert Knox, Farid Khan, Ken Thoma
p.713-714
/ref> One of the best preserved friezes is that of

. All of the 30 soldiers on the tomb of Darius further have trilingual labels over them for their ethnic identification, known collectively as th
DNe inscription
() in scholarly works. One of the last rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty,

Artaxerxes II Arses (; 445 – 359/8 BC), known by his regnal name Artaxerxes II ( ; ), was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 405/4 BC to 358 BC. He was the son and successor of Darius II () and his mother was Parysatis. Soon after his accession, Ar ...

(), also uses the same labels over the soldiers as depicted on his own tomb in

. These are known collectively as th
"A2Pa Inscription"
The inscription identifies the ethnicity of all 30 soldiers: The nationalities of the soldiers depicted on the reliefs and mentioned in the individual labels of the DNe inscription are, from left to right: Makan, Persian,

Median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

Elamite Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Scythic, Median, Amardian, Anshanian and Susian, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was recorded in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite i ...

, Parthian,

Arian Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...

Bactrian, Sogdian, Choresmian, Zarangian, Arachosian, Sattagydian, Gandharan, Hindush,

Saka The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...

(''Haumavarga''), Saka (''Tigraxauda''), Babylonian, Assyrian,

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

, Cappadocian, Lydian, Ionian, Saka " beyond the sea", Skudrian (

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

), Macedonian, Libyan, Nubian, and Carian.

Gallery

File:Graves in Tomb of Darius I.JPG, Two graves in the tomb of

, 2012. The graves, which once housed the remains of Darius and his wife

Atossa Atossa (Old Persian: ''Utauθa'', or Old Iranian: ''Hutauθa''; 550–475 BC) was an Achaemenid empress. She was the daughter of Cyrus the Great, the sister of Cambyses II, the wife of Darius the Great, the mother of Xerxes the Great and the gr ...

, were looted after Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia. File:Ferdowsi's self-narration at the end of his life.jpg,

Ferdowsi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...

's self-narration's inscription in his tomb, based on the architecture of Achaemenid tombs. Toos,

Mashhad Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. ...

File:Tomb of Darius I Scythian soldier with trilingual label.jpg,

Scythian The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC fr ...

soldier with trilingual identification label on lintel, 2018

References

Bibliography

* * Hubertus von Gall "NAQŠ-E ROSTAM" in Encyclopædia Iranic

* *

External links

Herzfeld Papers, Series 5: Drawings and Maps, Records of Naqsh-i Rustam
Collections Search Center, S.I.R.I.S., Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. {{Mausoleums in Iran 5th-century BC religious buildings and structures 4th-century BC religious buildings and structures Naqsh-e Rustam Marvdasht complex Achaemenid architecture

Darius the Great Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West A ...

Darius the Great Rock-cut tombs