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Kermanshah is a city in western Iran, 525 km from Tehran in the Zagros Mountains, famous for the Sasanian rock reliefs of Taq-e Bostan and the nearby Bisotun World Heritage Site. Its top sights also include the Qajar takyehs of Moaven-ol-Molk and Beyglarbeygi, the Grand Bazaar and the Anahita Temple at Kangavar.
People have lived in the area since the Lower Paleolithic, and Neanderthal remains have been found in caves in the province. The Sasanian king Bahram IV, known as Kirmanshah or King of Kerman, founded the city around 390, and under the Seljuks it became a cultural and trading centre of western Iran.
The city had 946,651 people at the 2016 census and has the largest Kurdish population in Iran, speaking Kermashani Kurdish and Persian. It has a montane climate with hot, almost rainless summers and cold winters with a few weeks of snow, and Razi University, founded in 1972, is its leading university.
Taq-e Bostan is a site of large Sasanian rock reliefs and rock-cut arches about 5 km from the centre of Kermanshah, Iran, carved around the 4th century CE. Set beside sacred springs that feed a large reflecting pool below the cliff, it shows the investitures of Ardashir II and Shapur III.
The Iwan of Khosrow II is the largest rock-cut arch at Taq-e Bostan near Kermanshah, Iran. Inside, the Sasanian king Khosrow II rides his horse Shabdiz in full armour in a panel about 7.45 m across, with trees of life carved on the columns and two winged angels above the arch.
The Anahita Temple at Kangavar in Kermanshah Province, Iran, is a ruined complex popularly linked with the ancient goddess Anahita. Its huge stone platform is just over 200 m a side, with side stairways recalling Achaemenid work and great Ionic columns, though its true purpose is still debated.
The Zagros Paleolithic Museum in Kermanshah, Iran, set up by Fereidoun Biglari of the National Museum of Iran, shows stone tools and animal fossils from Stone Age sites. Its four galleries include a model of a Neanderthal, replica skulls and a stone tool from Kashafrud nearly a million years old.
The Behistun Inscription is a trilingual rock inscription and relief made by Darius the Great on Mount Behistun near Kermanshah, Iran. About 15 m high and 25 m wide, 100 m up a limestone cliff, it was key to deciphering cuneiform, and Bisotun became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006.
The Statue of Hercules on Mount Behistun near Kermanshah, Iran, is the only surviving rock sculpture from the Seleucid period in Iran. Carved in 148 BC, it shows the hero reclining on a 2 m platform with a bowl in his hand; found in 1958, its head was stolen twice and is now a replica.
Farhad Tarash is a huge smoothed rock face on Mount Behistun near Kermanshah, Iran, about 30 m high and 200 m wide, beside the Behistun Inscription. Its purpose is unknown, but local tradition credits Farhad, the lover of Shirin in Nizami's tale, and it is the biggest work of its kind in Iran.
The Shah Abbasi Caravanserai is a Safavid-era caravanserai in Bisotun, near Kermanshah, Iran, in the town at the foot of the mountain that holds the Behistun Inscription. The old imperial road from Ecbatana to Babylon passed here, and the caravanserai became a national heritage site in 1974.
Takyeh Moaven-ol-Molk is a Qajar-era Shia mourning hall in Kermanshah, Iran, set six metres below ground level. Its tiled walls show Karbala, Iranian shahs, Shahnameh heroes, European villages and Persepolis motifs, and it holds the city's anthropology and costume museums.
Takyeh Beyglarbeygi is a Qajar-era takyeh in Kermanshah, Iran, built by Abdollah Khan Biglarbeygi and famous for its ayeneh-kari mirror work. No longer used for mourning, it was restored in 2002 and 2003 and opened in 2004 as a museum of calligraphy and Biglarbeygi family papers.
Kermanshah Grand Bazaar, also called Tarike Bazaar, is a covered bazaar in Kermanshah, Iran, built around 1820 when the Qajar prince Mohammad Ali Mirza Dowlatshah governed the city. It was then the largest covered bazaar in the Middle East, one of the many Qajar-era works in the city.
The Emad o dolah Mosque in Kermanshah, Iran, was completed in 1868 in the Qajar era, under Naser al-Din Shah. Its square minaret is unusual for the clock tower on the side facing the courtyard, and the mosque, damaged by earthquakes over the years, joined Iran's National Heritage List in 2008.
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