Page:The sculptures and inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistûn in Persia.djvu/24

 xiv characters," and that Semiramis ascended to the top of the Rock by laying the packs and saddles of her beasts of burden one upon the other. Diodorus also mentions that Alexander the Great visited the Rock on his march from Susa to Ecbatana. According to Sir Henry Rawlinson, the village of Behistûn is mentioned under the form "Baptana" by the early geographer Isidore of Charax, who, however, supplies no description of the Rock or its sculptures.

Among the earliest European visitors to Behistûn in modern times must be mentioned Ambrogio Bembo, who travelled in Persia in the second half of the XVIIth century, and gives a comparatively accurate description of the sculptures on the Rock. He was followed by Otter, about sixty years later, who considered the figure of the god Auramazda to be a mere heraldic device. After the lapse of another sixty years, Olivier visited Behistûn and made a drawing of the sculptures, which he afterwards published in the account of his travels. His drawing is very faulty, for he represents Darius as seated on a throne, with his feet resting on a footstool, and his copy of the rest of the composition is inaccurate. Notwithstanding this, Hoeck, in his Veteris Mediae et Persiae Monumenta (Göttingen, 1818), relies chiefly on Olivier for his information, and rejects Bembo's more trustworthy narrative. The Rock was again described by Gardanne, who supposed that Auramazda and his rays of light were a cross, and thoht that the figures below it represented the Twelve Apostles.