KERMANSHAH

Situation and access: Provincial capital, Kurdestan Region. Altitude 1,630 meters. 200 km E of Khosravi (Iran/Iran border). 390 km to Baghdad on a good road. 590 km S-W of Tehran, via Hamadan (190 km) on a good road. 605 km South of Tabriz on a good road and 80km of track, via Sanandaj. 750 km north of Abadan on a very good road.

Like Hamadan, Kermanshahan is on the age-old Asia Mediterranean caravan route, and similarly was many times re-built. There is only one vestige, but it is a remarkable one, Taq-e Bostan , "The Garden Arch". It is a group of rock sculpture, several of them protected by a porch roof which forms a grotto. Rupestral motifs date back to the great Sassanid period (3rd century A.D. until Islam). The bas-relief below shows the investiture of Ardeshir II (379). The King receives from God Hormozd a ribbon-decked ring, the symbol of royal power. To his right God Mithra holds a bunch of sacred branches, a ritual instrument in use since the Median period.

"Tagh_e Bostan"

From Kermanshah the road runs along the bottom of a fine velvety fawn colored cliff. Bisotun clusters around a source nearby a vertical rock wall. On the roadside there are inscriptions engraved in the rock in three languages, Ancient Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian or Neo-Babylonian. This enabled British officer Rawlinson to decipher Babylonian. The inscriptions tell the story of the battles Darius had to wage in 521-520 B.C. against the governors who were trying to dismantle the Empire founded by Cyrus. The nineteenth, decisive victory took place on this site. A bas-relief portrays this expolit ; unfortunately the scene showing the King with this principal enemy at his feet and eight rebel governors enchained behind him in some 50 meters above ground level and is hardly visible without the use of binoculars.

"Ardeshir II (379)"

"Ruin of Anahita Temple in Kangavar near Kermanshah"

"Tagh_e Bostan, Relief of Sasanian King Khosrow II, A.D. 6th - 7th century"

"Bisoton, The Triumph of Darius I, B.C. 6th century"