Key words: Cube of Zoroaster; Naqsh-e Rustam; Persian Crosses; Rock tombs; Tombs of Achaemenid Empires.
Naqsh-e Rustam (the Throne of Rustam), local name ‘Persian Crosses’ is an ancient necropolis situated northwest of Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. Naqsh-e Rustam is an impressive reminder of once glorious Achaemenid Persian Empire (550–330 BCE) and it stands as a magnificent manifestation of ancient Persian art. Naqsh-e Rustam is the house for the immense rock tombs cut high into the cliff. The rock tombs belong to four Achaemenian kings. The ancient tombs attracted Sasanian kings as well. They wished to imitate the glory of the Achaemenian kings; maybe that is why they created huge reliefs besides the tombs. The immense rock reliefs mainly depict the investiture scenes and the equestrian fights of the Sasanian kings. However, the history of Naqsh-e Rustam is not limited to the Achaemenid and Sassanid periods. There is evidence that the site exists from the Elamite period. An ancient rock relief dating back to Elamite period indicates that Naqsh-e Rustam had been a sacred place during the ancient times. That might be the reason Darius I (522-486 BCE) ordered to carve his monumental tomb into the cliff at the foot of Mt. Hosain (Huseyn Kuh). His rock tomb is famous for its two inscriptions known as the king’s autobiography. The inscriptions indicate that Darius the Great had been the king who ruled according to justice. The other three tombs are believed to be those of Xerxes I (486-465 BCE), Artaxerxes I (465-424 BCE), and Darius II (423-404 BCE), respectively. The entrance to each tomb is at the center of each cross, which opens onto to a small chamber, where the king lay in a sarcophagus. The horizontal beam of each of the tomb's facades is believed to be a replica of the entrance of the palace at Persepolis. The oldest relief at Naqsh-i Rustam depicts a faint image of a man with unusual head-gear and is thought to be Elamite in origin. The depiction is part of a larger mural, most of which was removed at the command of Bahram II. The man with the unusual cap gives the site its name, Naqsh-e Rostam, "Picture of Rostam", because the relief was locally believed to be a depiction of the mythical hero Rostam.
In front of the rock tombs, there is a square tower known as the Ka’ba-ye Zartosht that means the Cube of Zoroaster (Ka’ba is the famous monument as a holy site for Muslims located in Mecca). The structure of the building is a copy of a sister building at Pasargadae known as the Prison of Solomon; however, this building is a few decades older than Ka’ba-ye Zartosht.
In the 1930s, the Shah of Iran granted permission to the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago to excavate the remains of Persepolis and the other areas near it. Ernst Herzfeld led this Persian Expedition documented the major monuments at Naqsh-e Rustam. Their greatest finds included the famous reliefs of the Sassanian Kings high up on the rock-face. The locals had long assumed that one of the carved figures was that of Rustam, one of the heroes from Firdausi’s epic Shahnameh. Going by that, the site had long been known as Naqsh-e Rustam (the carvings of Rustam).
