Naqsh-e Rostam: Tombs of the Persian Kings and Sasanian Reliefs

Naqsh-e Rostam is a cliff necropolis about 12 kilometres northwest of Persepolis in southwestern Iran, where four Achaemenid Persian kings, beginning with Darius I in 486 BC, were buried in tombs cut high into the rock. Seven centuries later, the Sasanian kings of Persia carved huge reliefs below them to celebrate their own power. Together with a mysterious stone tower, the Kaaba-ye Zartosht, the site forms one of the most remarkable royal landscapes of the ancient world.

Background: a sacred cliff

The cliff of Hossein Kuh rises above the Marvdasht plain, not far from the Achaemenid palace city of Persepolis. The site seems to have been important long before the Persians. A faint relief of Elamite style, probably of the late 2nd or early 1st millennium BC, can still be traced on the rock, although most of it was later cut away for a Sasanian carving.

Cyrus the Great had been buried in a freestanding stone tomb at Pasargadae. Darius I chose a different model: a tomb carved into a sheer rock face, out of reach and visible from afar. His successors followed his example, here and later at Persepolis itself, where Artaxerxes II and Artaxerxes III are thought to have had their tombs cut into the mountain above the terrace.

The Achaemenid royal tombs

Four tombs are cut into the cliff, each with a cross-shaped facade. The horizontal arm of the cross reproduces the front of a Persian palace, with four engaged columns topped by bull capitals and a central doorway. Behind the doorway lie chambers with stone burial cists.

The upper part of each facade shows the king standing on a three-step platform before a fire altar, with a winged symbol, usually identified with Ahuramazda, hovering above. The platform rests on a throne carried by two rows of figures representing the peoples of the empire, each in local dress.

Only the tomb of Darius I (ruled 522-486 BC) is securely identified, through its inscriptions. The other three are attributed, from their position and style, to Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I and Darius II. One of Darius’s inscriptions (known to scholars as DNa) lists some thirty peoples of the empire and asks the viewer to look at the throne-bearers to see how far the Persian spear had gone. Another (DNb) presents Darius as a just ruler who does not let the strong harm the weak, or the weak harm the strong.

The Kaaba-ye Zartosht

Opposite the tombs stands a square stone tower about 12 metres high, with a single door reached by a staircase and blind windows of dark stone. It is closely similar to a ruined tower at Pasargadae, the Zendan-e Soleyman. It dates from the Achaemenid period, probably the 5th century BC.

Its purpose is unknown. Scholars have proposed a fire temple, a royal tomb, a treasury for sacred texts or regalia, or a building used in coronation rituals. The name Kaaba-ye Zartosht, “Cube of Zoroaster”, was given much later and reflects local tradition rather than its original use.

In the Sasanian period its walls were inscribed with two of the most important texts of the era. The trilingual inscription of Shapur I, in Middle Persian, Parthian and Greek, recounts his victories over Rome. Often called the Res Gestae Divi Saporis, “the deeds of the divine Shapur”, after the Latin title of Augustus’s own account of his reign, it describes three campaigns. Shapur claims that the emperor Gordian III was killed in battle at Misiche in 244, that his successor Philip the Arab paid 500,000 denarii to make peace, and that Valerian was captured in 260 together with senior officers and many soldiers, who were resettled in Persia. It also lists dozens of Roman cities captured in Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia, among them Antioch.

Below it, the high priest Kartir recorded his own career and his campaign to promote Zoroastrian orthodoxy.

The Sasanian reliefs

From the 3rd century AD, the Sasanian dynasty, which claimed links with the ancient Persian kings, carved large reliefs into the cliff beneath the Achaemenid tombs. There are about eight of them. The main scenes include:

• The investiture of Ardashir I: the founder of the dynasty and the god Ahura Mazda face each other on horseback. The god hands Ardashir the ring of kingship, while their horses trample the defeated Parthian king Artabanus IV and the evil spirit Ahriman. Ardashir had defeated Artabanus at the Battle of Hormozdgan in AD 224.
• The triumph of Shapur I: the mounted king receives the kneeling Roman emperor Philip the Arab and holds the wrist of the emperor Valerian, captured after the Battle of Edessa in 260.
• Later reliefs of Bahram II with his family, the investiture of Narseh, possibly by the goddess Anahita, and equestrian combat scenes of Hormizd II and other kings.

By placing their monuments under the tombs of Darius and his heirs, the Sasanians visually connected themselves with the earlier Persian empire, whether or not they knew exactly who was buried above.

Rediscovery and study

After the fall of the Sasanian Empire in the 7th century, the site’s original meaning was largely forgotten, and local legend linked it with heroes of Persian epic. European travellers began to describe it from the 17th century, among them the French jeweller Jean Chardin and the German physician Engelbert Kaempfer, who produced some of the first drawings of the tombs.

In 1765 the Danish explorer Carsten Niebuhr copied inscriptions at Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rostam with great care. His copies later allowed Georg Friedrich Grotefend to identify the names of Persian kings in Old Persian cuneiform, the first step towards decipherment that culminated in the work on the Behistun Inscription. Systematic excavation came in the 1930s, when Erich Schmidt cleared the foot of the cliff and uncovered the Sasanian inscriptions on the Kaaba-ye Zartosht.

Myths and facts

Myth: the carvings show the hero Rostam. The name Naqsh-e Rostam, “Picture of Rostam”, comes from a later belief that the figures depicted Rostam of the Shahnameh, the Persian national epic completed by Ferdowsi around 1010. The reliefs actually show historical Sasanian kings.

Myth: the Kaaba-ye Zartosht was a Zoroastrian fire temple. This is one theory among several. No firm evidence settles its function, and critics point out that its single small, closed room seems poorly suited to keeping a fire burning.

Timeline

• 486 BC: Darius I dies and is buried in the first rock-cut tomb at Naqsh-e Rostam.
• 465-404 BC: Three more royal tombs are cut, usually attributed to Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I and Darius II.
• 5th century BC: The Kaaba-ye Zartosht is built opposite the tombs.
• AD 224: Ardashir I defeats Artabanus IV and founds the Sasanian Empire; his investiture relief follows.
• AD 260 or soon after: Shapur I’s victory relief and his inscription on the Kaaba-ye Zartosht are carved.
• Late 3rd century AD: Kartir adds his inscription; Bahram II and Narseh commission new reliefs.
• 1936-1939: Erich Schmidt’s Oriental Institute expedition excavates and documents the site.

Why it matters

Naqsh-e Rostam gathers more than a thousand years of Iranian royal history on a single rock face. Its tombs record how the Achaemenid kings presented their empire in death, and its reliefs and inscriptions are key sources for Sasanian ideology and for Rome’s wars with Persia, including the unprecedented capture of a Roman emperor.