Ganjnameh ( fa, گنجنامه, translit=Ganjnāme, lit=Treasure Book) is located 12 km southwest of

Hamadan Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') (Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ham ...

(ancient Ecbatana) in western

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, at an altitude of meters across Mount Alvand. The site is home to two trilingual

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...

inscriptions. The inscription on the upper left was created on the order of Achaemenid King Darius the Great (522–486 BC) and the one on the right by his son King

Xerxes the Great Xerxes I ( peo, 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ξέρξης ; – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of D ...

(486–465 BC).

Description

The two inscription panels of Ganjnameh, carved in stone in 20 lines on a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

rock above a creek, measure 2 × 3 m each. Written in Old Persian,

Neo-Babylonian The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and bein ...

and Neo-Elamite, except for the different royal name, the contents of the two inscriptions are identical; Ahura Mazda receives praise, and lineages and conquests are listed. According to Stuart C. Brown, in the pre-

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

period, this mountain was apparently the main "east-west pass" through Mount Alvand. During the Achaemenid period, Ecbatana functioned as summer capital due to its high elevation and pleasant weather. The site received its name from local natives, who believed that the inscriptions contained the secret code to a hidden treasure. Two modern contemporary carved tablets have been placed in the site's parking lot with Persian explanation and its English translation.

Gallery

File:Ganjnameh by Eugène Flandin.jpg,

Eugène Flandin Jean-Baptiste Eugène Napoléon Flandin (15 August 1809 in Naples – 29 September 1889 in Tours), French orientalist, painter, archaeologist, and politician. Flandin's archeological drawings and some of his military paintings are valued m ...

's 1840 drawing of Ganjnameh. File:Hamadān. Vue du rocher sur lequel sont gravées les inscriptions; District d'Hamadân (NYPL b12482496-1542732) (cropped).jpg,

Pascal Coste Xavier Pascal Coste (26 November 1787 – 8 February 1879) was a French architect. He was at one time a personal architect for Muhammad Ali Pasha. As a seasoned traveller, his travels to Qajar Iran, aroused the interest of King Louis Philippe I a ...

's 1851 drawing of Ganjnameh. File:سنگ نبشته گنج نامه همدان.jpg, Ganjnameh inscriptions in 2018.

Notes

References

Sources

* * {{Achaemenid Empire Achaemenid inscriptions Archaeology of the Achaemenid Empire Tourist attractions in Hamadan Province Darius the Great Xerxes I Akkadian inscriptions Elamite language Cuneiform Persian words and phrases