Images of Iran
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Eclipse 1999 Images of Iran |
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| by John Walker |
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About 6 km from Persepolis is the Naghsh-é Rostam site in which four massive tombs have been cut into the face of a cliff. These are said to be the tombs of (left to right) Darius I, Artaxerxes I, Xerxes I, and Darius II (Artaxerxes II built his tomb in the same style in a cliff above Persepolis), but precisely whose tombs these are and which is which appears to be a matter of some dispute. They are architecturally consistent with that of the later Artaxerxes II, and it makes sense that he would build his tomb elsewhere because the cliff face at Naghsh-é Rostam was already filled with the tombs of his ancestors. If the identification above is correct, this image shows the tombs of Darius I and Artaxerxes I, which would have been built around 486 and 424 BC respectively.