Taq-e Bostan: A Sassanid Empire Legacy, Kermanshah
Royal reliefs, rock-cut arches and competing interpretations
Taq-e Bostan, in Kermanshah, brings together Sasanian royal reliefs and two rock-cut arched recesses. Understanding which ruler belongs to each scene makes a visit much easier to follow.
Start by distinguishing the open-air relief, the smaller arched recess and the larger recess. They belong to different phases and do not all depict the same ceremony.
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Taq-e Bostan: A Sassanid Empire Legacy, Kermanshah
The earliest royal reliefs here date to the late fourth century. The large arched monument is generally attributed to Khosrow II, around the turn of the seventh century.
The reliefs are cut into the mountainside beside a spring, with a basin in front of the rock. From across the water, the two arched recesses are easier to distinguish; closer views reveal the separate royal scenes.
Taq-e Bostan
Taq-e Bostan appears on Iran’s UNESCO Tentative List, submitted in 2007. A tentative-list entry is a proposal for possible future nomination, not inscription as a World Heritage Site.
Ardashir II and Shapur III commissioned the late fourth-century monuments. The later large recess uses a different arrangement, combining a royal scene, an armoured horseman and hunting panels. Read these as separate compositions rather than a continuous account of one coronation.
The smaller recess shows two kings standing side by side. The inscriptions name Shapur II and Shapur III, father and son. The carved figures’ crowns have prompted debate about who was originally depicted.
Water management is part of the monument’s conservation history. A 2019 account quoting heritage official Alireza Barshahi describes how uncovering the old water channel reduced moisture penetration into the rock-cut monuments.
What Does ‘Taq-e Bostan’ Mean?
The local forms Taq-ve-San and Taq Basan are explained as “stone arch” by the Cultural Institute of Iran in Rome. Taq-e Bostan should not be confused with Bisotun or Qasr-e Shirin, which are separate places in Kermanshah province.
Exploring Different Parts of Taq-e Bostan
The hunting panels reward close looking: follow the sequence of animals, attendants and the ruler rather than treating every figure as part of one instant. Their narrative arrangement differs from the more formal standing royal scenes.
Taq-e Bostan features two adjoining arches carved into the mountain, made of unpolished grey stone. Each part tells a story with its historical significance.
The large recess is generally associated with Khosrow II. Above the armoured horseman, the standing king appears between figures usually identified as Ohrmazd (Ahura Mazda) and Anahita. It is distinct from the open-air relief of Ardashir II.
The small recess lies between the large recess and the open-air royal relief. Its paired standing kings and the inscriptions beside them distinguish it from the scenes of investiture elsewhere at the site.
Reliefs and Inscriptions of Taq-e Bostan, Kermanshah
Two Middle Persian inscriptions sit beside the kings on the back wall of the smaller recess. Both invoke Mazda worship and divine origin, and trace the king’s family back two generations. Bruno Overlaet argues from the regalia that the figure now labelled Shapur III may originally have represented Ardashir II, and that the identifying texts could have been added later.
Shapur II inscription :
The inscription names Shapur II as king of kings of Iran and non-Iran, son of Hormizd II and grandson of Narseh.
Shapur III inscription:
The inscription names Shapur III as king of kings of Iran and non-Iran, son of Shapur II and grandson of Hormizd II.
The Relief of Ardeshir II’s Coronation
The open-air relief beside the smaller recess is associated with Ardashir II, who ruled from 379 to 383 CE. It combines the granting of royal authority with imagery of victory.
Ardashir receives a ribboned ring from a figure whose identity is debated. It has been read as Ohrmazd, but its crown also supports identification with Shapur II. On the other side stands Mithra, with rays around his head and a bundle of ritual twigs, on a lotus.
The fallen figure beneath the royal group is often identified as the Roman emperor Julian. The image represents a defeated or dead enemy, not a documented scene of Julian being taken prisoner.
The different identifications of the ring-giving figure lead to different readings of the scene: divine investiture, dynastic succession and victory imagery overlap.
The Relief of Deer Hunting
The stag-hunting panel belongs to the large recess’s programme of royal imagery. Encyclopaedia Iranica identifies the two hunting panels as stag and boar hunts associated with Khosrow Parviz. The scene presents an organised royal expedition, not simply a ruler hunting alone.
In the stag hunt, look for the mounted ruler beneath a parasol and the attendants around him. The Smithsonian’s historic photographic archive identifies this panel on the right interior wall of the large vault.
The musicians and attendants are part of the spectacle of court life. Women also appear in the hunting imagery: the scholarly account of Sasanian hunting notes their participation alongside Khosrow Parviz.
Follow the different groups across the panel instead of reading the whole carving as a single moment. The repeated royal figure helps give the hunt a narrative sequence.
The Relief of Boar Hunting
The other panel shows a boar hunt involving boats and elephants. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes the Taq-e Bostan elephants as driving game out for the hunters. Their role is to flush out animals, rather than to tame them.
Look separately at the elephant-mounted beaters, the royal boat and the musicians. These groups show how many attendants were involved in the royal spectacle. Counting every rider is less useful than understanding the different tasks shown.
The hunt is also a statement about royal status. Encyclopaedia Iranica explains that hunting in pre-Islamic Iran expressed noble rank and the ruler’s heroic qualities, as well as being a practical activity.
The Relief of an Armored Horse Rider
The mounted figure occupies the lower part of the large recess. The rider is often identified as Khosrow II, also known as Khosrow Parviz; James W. Allan uses that identification in his study of the armour.
In James W. Allan’s study of armour, the rider wears a mail coat and a curtain of mail hanging from the helmet, leaving the eyes visible. Allan identifies the horse’s head, neck and chest protection as lamellar armour, made from small linked plates; its hindquarters are uncovered.
Look for the long lance and round shield as well as the tasselled covering on the horse. Compare the rider’s close-textured mail with the differently patterned protection across the horse’s front.
The Relief of Mohammad Ali Mirza (Qajar Era Carving)
A later addition belongs to the Qajar period. The Cultural Institute of Iran in Rome notes both Qajar-era relief carving and a nasta’liq inscription among the changes made to the complex.
Compare the later figures with the Sasanian compositions around them: they represent a different period of royal patronage. Their presence is part of the site’s subsequent history, rather than another Sasanian coronation scene.
Taq-e Bostan Spring Site
The spring beside the cliff helps explain the setting of the carved monuments. Water, rock and the basin belong to the wider landscape of the site, as well as providing a foreground for views of the two recesses.
Barshahi explained that enclosing the old channels had encouraged water to penetrate the rock by capillary action. Removing their covers reduced that moisture. This account shows why the water system and the preservation of the reliefs need to be understood together.
Taq-e Bostan Stone Museum
The museum collection adds a different view of Sasanian stone carving. In a July 2020 interview reported by ISNA and republished by Honar Online, site director Maliheh Mehdiabadi described the return of twelve Sasanian capitals to a covered display area at the entrance. The pieces had been gathered from several locations, including Bisotun.
Mehdiabadi described royal and divine figures on opposite faces of some capitals, with geometric or floral carving on the other sides. These freestanding architectural pieces offer a useful comparison with the figures carved directly into the cliff. The 2020 report documents the display’s creation, rather than its present admission arrangements.
The Landscape and the Rahmat Tree
The mountain backdrop, basin and trees give a different view of Taq-e Bostan from the close study of its carvings. Leave time to look back across the water as well as following the royal and hunting scenes at the rock face.
The plane tree known as Rahmat, or Shirin and Farhad, is also part of the site’s local heritage. In a July 2025 account quoting site director Mohammadmehdi Feyz-Aghaei, its age was estimated at about six hundred years from historical records, photographs and local accounts. This is an estimate, rather than a documented planting date.
Sources for the revised chronology and royal identifications: Prudence O. Harper, Art in Iran v. Sasanian Art and A. Sh. Shahbazi, Ardashir II, Encyclopaedia Iranica; and Iran’s Taq-e Bostan Tentative List submission, published by UNESCO. Read on 3 November 2026.
Further sources for the revised names, hunting scenes and later additions: Cultural Institute of Iran in Rome, Taq Bostan; Hunting in Iran i. In the pre-Islamic Period, Encyclopaedia Iranica; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sasanian elephant figure and comparison with Taq-e Bostan; and the Smithsonian’s Ernst Herzfeld photographic archive. Read on 3 November 2026.
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