Inscription of Xerxes the Great below the Van fortress

This inscription was left by Xerxes the Great in Western Armenia, on the rocks below the Van fortress.

Xerxes I, widely known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth shahanshah of the Achaemenid Empire and ruled from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son of Darius I and of Atossa, daughter of Cyrus II. He was born in 519 BC in the Achaemenid Empire and was killed in 465 BC in Persepolis, Iran.

On a smoothed section of the rock is a cuneiform text of many lines, divided into three columns.