Bagistan is described by Isidore as a "city situated on a hill, where
there was a pillar and a statue of Semiramis." Diodorus has an account
of the arrival of Semiramis at the place, of her establishing a royal
park or paradise in the plain below the mountain, which was watered
by an abundant spring, of her smoothing the face of the rock where it
descended precipitously upon the low ground, and of her carving on the
surface thus obtained her own effigy, with an inscription in Assyrian
characters. The position assigned to Bagistan by both writers, and the
description of Diodorus, identify the place beyond a doubt with the now
famous Behistun, where the plain, the fountain, the precipitous rock,
and the scarped surface are still to be seen, through the supposed
figure of Semiramis, her pillar, and her inscription have disappeared.
[PLATE II., Fig. 1.] This remarkable spot, lying on the direct route
between Babylon and Ecbatana, and presenting the unusual combination of
a copious fountain, a rich plain, and a rock suitable for sculptures,
must have early attracted the attention of the great monarchs who
marched their armies through the Zagros range, as a place where they
might conveniently set up memorials of their exploits. The works of this
kind ascribed by the ancient writers to Semiramis were probably either
Assyrian or Babylonian, and (it is most likely) resembled the ordinary
monuments which the kings of Babylon and Nineveh delighted to erect
in countries newly conquered. The example set by the Mesopotamians was
followed by their Arian neighbors, when the supremacy passed into
their hands; and the famous mountain, invested by them with a sacred
character, was made to subserve and perpetuate their glory by receiving
sculptures and inscriptions which showed them to have become the lords
of Asia. The practice did not even stop here. When the Parthian kingdom
of the Arsacidee had established itself in these parts at the expense
of the Seleucidse, the rock was once more called upon to commemorate