Behistun relief and inscription

Behistun relief and inscription of Darius I

Monumental trilingual inscription and relief, carved 66m above ground level on the cliff-face of Mt Behistun (*OP Baga-stana, 'place of the gods') in north-west Iran, on the main highway between Babylon and Ecbatana. 

Relief: W. 5.5m, H. 3m; the figure of Darius is life-size (H. 1.72m), the 'false kings' somewhat smaller (H. 1.17m). 

Inscription written in three languages, Elamite, Babylonian, and Old Persian (for the disposition of the inscriptions, see the drawings). 

Translation: ​M. Brosius, The Persian Empire from Cyrus II to Artaxerxes I (2000), nos. 44, 30, and 35 (annoyingly split into three parts); A. Kuhrt, The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period (2007), pp. 141-158; online translations of the Old Persian text here and here.

On the relief: M. Cool Root, The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art (1979) 182-226

On the historical content: P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander 97-138; W. Vogelsang, ‘Medes, Scythians and Persians: The Rise of Darius in a North-South Perspective’, Iranica Antiqua 33 (1998) 195-223; R. Shayegan, ‘Bardiya and Gaumata: An Achaemenid Enigma Reconsidered’, BAI 20 (2010), 65-76.

Relationship with Herodotus' account: J. Balcer, Herodotus and Bisitun: Problems in Ancient Persian Historiography (1987) 19-48