Persia past and present; a book of travel and research, with more than two hundred illustrations and a map . ain of Behistan and the great inscription of Darius. Formiles before one reaches it the huge mass of rock is constantlyin sight, lifting its giant head seventeen hundred feet above theplain; and several times in the distance my eager eyes were mis-taken in fancying I could see from afar the smoothed surfacewhere the Great Kings edict is inscribed. This was an error, forin approaching by the Hamadan road one must round the north-east corner of the mountain before the inscription can be s
Persia past and present; a book of travel and research, with more than two hundred illustrations and a map . ain of Behistan and the great inscription of Darius. Formiles before one reaches it the huge mass of rock is constantlyin sight, lifting its giant head seventeen hundred feet above theplain; and several times in the distance my eager eyes were mis-taken in fancying I could see from afar the smoothed surfacewhere the Great Kings edict is inscribed. This was an error, forin approaching by the Hamadan road one must round the north-east corner of the mountain before the inscription can be was shortly before noon, or, to be more accurate, ,when my caravan halted at the base of Bisitun, as the Persianscall it, and far above I could see the inscription and the sculp-tured figures which the natives term the Nine Dervishes. 1 Reprinted with some additions and harahya ; the notice of the Gotarzegminor corrections from my report in sculpture; and the account of theJAOS. 24. 77-95. The additions are : monolith at the close of the 51, patiydvahyaiy; 2. 61, Qauravd- 186. FIRST VIEW OF THE GREAT ROCK 187 With all I had read about Behistan, with all I had heard aboutit, and with all I had thought about it beforehand, I had notthe faintest conception of the Gibraltar-like impressiveness ofthis rugged crag until I came into its Titan presence and feltthe grandeur of its sombre shadow and towering frame. Snowand clouds capped its peaks at the time, and birds innumerablewere soaring around it aloft or hovering near the place wherethe inscriptions are hewn into the rock. There as I lookedupward, I could see, more than three hundred feet above theground, the bas-relief of the great king, Darius. Prone athis feet lay Gaumata, the Magian usurper, who had seized thethrone on the death of Cambyses. In front of Darius stoodthe row of captive kings, and above the head of each I coulddiscern a faint trace of the tablet with the lie which eachhad uttered in hi
Size: 1269px × 1968px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondonmacmillancol
