Monument Type
Ancient carvings that speak across millennia
Carved directly into the living rock of Kurdistan's mountains and cliff faces, rock reliefs are among the most durable and dramatic forms of ancient art. From Assyrian royal processional scenes to Sasanian imperial grandeur, these carvings preserve the faces and deeds of civilisations that shaped the world.
The mountains of Kurdistan provided both the canvas and the audience. Reliefs were positioned at prominent locations — beside sacred springs, along royal roads, on cliff faces visible for miles — to project power, commemorate victories, and communicate with the divine.
In 1835, a young British officer named Henry Rawlinson found himself stationed in Kermanshah. Fascinated by the ancient carvings high on the cliff at Behistun, he began the dangerous work of copying the inscriptions — hanging from ropes hundreds of feet above the ground. Over several years of painstaking effort, Rawlinson deciphered the Old Persian text, then used it to crack the Babylonian cuneiform. The achievement opened a window into 3,000 years of Mesopotamian civilisation that had been completely lost to human knowledge.
No monuments found for this category yet.
Check back as our collection grows.
Near Kermanshah in Rojhilat (Iranian Kurdistan), the rock reliefs of Taq-e Bostan represent the pinnacle of Sasanian monumental art. Carved into a cliff beside a sacred spring, the reliefs include an extraordinary equestrian statue of King Khosrow II in full armour, along with elaborate royal hunting scenes depicting boar and deer hunts with hundreds of individual figures.
Also near Kermanshah, the Behistun Inscription is one of the most important documents in human history. Commissioned by Darius the Great around 520 BCE, this multilingual inscription — carved 100 metres above the ground to prevent tampering — provided the key to deciphering cuneiform script, unlocking the entire literary heritage of ancient Mesopotamia. It is the "Rosetta Stone" of the ancient Near East.
Near Sulaymaniyah, the rock-cut tomb of Qyzqapan dates to the Median period (7th–6th century BCE). Its carved facade features figures in Median dress flanking a doorway, with Zoroastrian symbols including a winged sun disk. As one of the few surviving examples of Median art, it provides a tangible link between the modern Kurdish people and their ancient ancestors.