Mount Bisotoun (or Behistun and Bisotun) is a mountain of the

Zagros Mountains The Zagros Mountains are a mountain range in Iran, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey. The mountain range has a total length of . The Zagros range begins in northwestern Iran and roughly follows Iran's western border while covering much of s ...

range, located in

Kermanshah Province Kermanshah province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, bordering Iraq. Its capital is the city of Kermanshah. According to a 2014 segmentation by the Ministry of Interior (Iran), Ministry of Interior, it is the center of Regions of Iran ...

, western

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 is located west of

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

Cultural history

Mount Bisotoun, aka ''Bīsitūn'' (referring to the mountain and the nearby village), is a mountain with a rock precipice in the Zagros Mountains in

Kermanshah, Iran Kermanshah is a city in the Central District (Kermanshah County), Central District of Kermanshah province, Kermanshah province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. The city is from Tehran in the western pa ...

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 ...

inscribed the flat rock face in three languages c.

500 BC __NOTOC__ The year 500 BC was a year of the Roman calendar, pre-Julian Roman calendar. In the Roman Republic it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Camerinus and Longus (or, less frequently, year 254 '' Ab urbe condita''). when the Anno ...

, known as 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 ...

Legends

A legend began around Mount Bisotoun, as written about by the Persian poet Nezami about a man named

Farhad Farhad ( ''farhād''), also spelt Ferhaad, Ferhod or Ferhat, is a common Persian name for men used since the Parthians, first recorded for Arsacid kings circa 170 BC. Variants of the name are also commonly found in other countries with historica ...

, who was a lover of Shirin.

Gallery

Image:Farhad Tarash 2010.jpg, Farhad Tarash at the base of Mount Behistun Image:Farhad tarash.jpg, Farhad Tarash at the base of Mount Behistun Image:Godarz.jpg, Goudarz Image:Bistoon_Kermanshah.jpg, Hercules Statue Image:Darius_I_the_Great's_inscription.jpg, Darius I the Great's inscription

References

Zagros Mountains

Behistun The Behistun Inscription (also Bisotun, Bisitun or Bisutun; , Old Persian: Bagastana, meaning "the place of god") is a multilingual Achaemenid royal inscription and large rock relief on a cliff at Mount Behistun in the Kermanshah Province of I ...

Archaeological sites in Iran Inscribed rocks Mountains of Iran {{Kermanshah-geo-stub