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Naqs-i Rustam Naqs-i Rustam
Naqs-i Rustam


(from an article by Jona Lendering: www.livius.org/na-nd/naqsh-i-rustam/naqsh-i-rustam.html )

Naqš-i Rustam (Nupistaš?) is situated some five kilometers northwest of Persepolis, the capital of the ancient Achaemenid empire. As is shown by a pre-Achaemenid relief and several old graves, Naqš-i Rustam was already a place of some importance when king Darius I the Great (522-486) ordered his monumental tomb to be carved into the cliff. Later, three Achaemenid tombs and Sasanian reliefs were added.
Darius' tomb

Darius' tomb is well-known for the king's "autobiography", which is contained in two inscriptions (DNa and DNb). The central thought is that he wanted to rule according to justice: "It is not my desire that a man should do harm, nor is it my desire that he goes unpunished when he does harm".

Later, similar royal rock tombs were added. Because they carry no inscriptions, they can not be identified with any certainty, but they must obviously have belonged to Darius' son and successor Xerxes (486-465), his son Artaxerxes I Makrocheir (465-424) and his grandson Darius II Nothus (423-404). Each tomb could contain 3 to 9 people. The later Achaemenid kings, Artaxerxes II Mnemon, Artaxerxes III Ochus and Darius III Codomannus (404-358, 358-338 and 336-330) were probably buried in tombs at Persepolis.

After the fall of the Achaemenid empire, Naqš-i Rustam remained important to the Persians. After 260 CE, the Sasanian king Shapur I had a monumental relief cut out in the rock, showing how he made Philippus Arabs ruler of the Roman empire and received the defeated Roman emperor Valerian. Other reliefs were added by Shapur's successors.

In the Middle ages, the Persians believed that the legendary hero Rustam (well-known from Firdausi's Shahname) had used the place as his dance floor, which explains the name Naqš-i Rustam, "the carvings by Rustam".
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Taken on: November 13, 2008
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