Kermanshah
کرمانشاهRoyal rock reliefs from Darius to the Sasanians, cut into the cliffs of the Zagros.
Kermanshah sits on the old road from Mesopotamia onto the plateau. At Bisotun, Darius the Great carved a vast relief and inscription in three languages, Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian, which helped scholars decipher cuneiform in the nineteenth century.
At Taq-e Bostan, just outside the city, Sasanian kings carved grottoes with scenes of investiture and royal hunts. The province is home to Kurdish communities and shares the Uraman region with Kurdistan.
Cities and towns
Kermanshahکرمانشاه
The provincial capital
Kangavarکنگاور
A great terrace of the Seleucid and Parthian era, often called the Temple of Anahita
Sahnehصحنه
A town on the road to Hamadan
Landmarksبناها و نشانهها
Bisotun
بیستونDarius's relief and inscription in three languages
Taq-e Bostan
طاق بستانSasanian grottoes carved with royal scenes
Kermanshah through time
Iranian historyThe Achaemenidsهخامنشیان
From Cyrus to Darius III, the first Persian empire stretched from the Aegean to the Indus and left behind Persepolis, the Cyrus Cylinder and a model of kingship the region would long remember.
- Darius I has the Bisotun inscription carved
- Bisotun inscribed by UNESCO
Stories from hereداستانها
The Medes
An Iranian people of the north-western highlands, the Medes helped bring down Assyria and ruled from Ecbatana, beneath modern Hamadan, before Cyrus the Great absorbed their kingdom.
The Achaemenids
From Cyrus to Darius III, the first Persian empire stretched from the Aegean to the Indus and left behind Persepolis, the Cyrus Cylinder and a model of kingship the region would long remember.
The Sasanians
For four centuries the Sasanian kings ruled an empire of fire temples, rock reliefs and brick palaces, the last great Iranian empire before Islam.