Bisotun () is a city in, and the capital of,
Bisotun District of
Harsin County
Harsin County () is in Kermanshah province, Kermanshah province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Harsin, east of Kermanshah, above sea level.
Demographics Language and ethnicity
The population is Kurds, Kurdish and Shi'ite.
Population
A ...
,
Kermanshah province,
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 ...
.
It also serves as the administrative center for
Chamchamal Rural District.
Demographics
Population
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 2,075 in 527 households.
The following census in 2011 counted 5,107 people in 1,427 households.
The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 4,942 people in 1,495 households.
Overview
The town is at the foot of Bisotun Mountain, the flank of which is the location of an important historical site. The imperial road from Ekbatana to Babylon passed at the foot of the mountain. On the rocky slopes king
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 ...
left the
Behistun Inscription
The Behistun Inscription (also Bisotun, Bisitun or Bisutun; , Old Persian: Bagastana, meaning "the place of god") is a multilingual Achaemenid royal inscriptions, Achaemenid royal inscription and large rock relief on a cliff at Mount Behistun i ...
. From the
Seleucid epoch there is a
Herakles statue. Next to it
Parthian kings added some reliefs. Late Sasanian rulers prepared a large piece of rock for another victory relief which was never finished because of the subsequent Arab invasion. Later folklore connected this place to the legend of
Farhad and Shirin.
A
Safavid caravanserai is preserved in Bisotun.
See also
Notes
References
Cities in Kermanshah province
Populated places in Harsin County
{{Harsin-geo-stub