Inscriptions on the Monuments of the Achcemenides. 267 
THE INSCRIPTION AT VAN. 
This inscription is about sixty feet from the plain below, engraven 
upon a niche in an enormous rock which rises to the perpendicular 
heighth of one hundred feet: 
A great god (is) Auramazda who (is) the greatest of the gods, who 
created this earth, who created yonder heaven, who created man, who 
created the spirit ? of man, who made Xerxes king, one king of many, one 
lord of many. I (am) Xerxes the great king, king of kings, king of the 
provinces possessing many kinds of people, king of this great earth far 
and wide, the son of Darius the king, the Achaemenide. Says Xerxes 
the king Darius the king who (was) my father he by the grace of 
Auramazda did what (was) beautiful to a great extent and he com¬ 
manded to carve this place-? he did not make the inscription in¬ 
scribed; afterwards I commanded to inscribe this inscription; let Aura¬ 
mazda protect me with the gods and my kingdom and what (has been) 
done by me. 
