On one side is a sheer wall of precipitous rock. At its base is a copious fountain. On one of the great highways of travel, its isolated position and peculiar features have made this a notable landmark throughout the ages. At the northern extremity of this escarpment, in a recess to the right, are the famous inscriptions of Darius, son of Hystapes. To make these inaccessible to foreign invaders or domestic foes, they were placed about three hundred feet above the base of the rock. Sir Henry Rawlinson, who first deciphered these inscriptions, attempted the work by the aid of powerful field glasses, but later succeeded in obtaining a closer inspection by means of ropes let down from the cliffs at great expense and at the risk of his life. The wonder is, how the engravers could have done the work. The rock was beautifully polished before inscribed, and in some places where there were inequalities of surface, pieces of the rock were fitted in and fastened with molten lead. This was done with such delicacy that only by close and careful scrutiny can it be detected. After the engraving had been completed, a fine coat of silicious varnish was laid over, to give clearness of outline to each letter, and to protect the surface against the action of the elements. Of the inscriptions, Sir Henry Rawlinson says: “For beauty of execution, for uniformity and correctness, they are unequalled.” The purpose of King Darius in these memorials was to set forth to his subjects his hereditary right to the throne of Persia, and the glories of his reign. “I am Darieiros,” he says, “the great king, the king of kings, the king of Persia, the king of nations.” And then, after giving the record of his genealogy back to Achæmenes, the first of his line, he says: “There are eight of my race who have been kings before me; I am the ninth. In a double line we have been kings.” The inscriptions consist of a thousand lines in three columns and in three languages; an Aryan, a Turanian and a Semitic speech. The first column, addressed to the Persian people of his realm, was written in the Persian cuneiform, with thirty-six alphabetic signs and but four ideograms. The second was to the Proto-Medic, or as now called, Scythic inhabitants of the kingdom, and was written in the Turanian cuneiform, with ninety-six pure syllabic signs, accompanied by seven surviving ideograms. The third version, to the Assyrian or Semitic subjects of the Persian king, was inscribed in the Semitic Babylonian cuneiform, including five hundred characters. After the discovery by Grotefend of the key to the decipherment of the Persian cuneiform, Sir Henry Rawlinson, an English military officer in the service of the East India Company, while on duty in Persia, undertook the study of cuneiform characters. This he attempted independently, with no one to aid him, as at this time he was not acquainted with the discoveries of Grotefend, or the methods pursued by him.