Kermanshah Provincee

Kermanshah (Persian: کرمانشاه Kermānshāh, Gorani Kurdish: کرماشان), is the capital city of Kermanshah Province, located 525 kilometers (324 miles) from Tehran in the western part of Iran. The city is about 50 miles from the border of Iraq. It had an estimated population of 822,921 in 2005 and its climate is mild. The majority of the inhabitants are Kurds who speak the Gorani, Kalhori and Laki dialects of Kurdish. The majority of the population in this city are Shi'a Muslims.

History

Given its antiquity, attractive landscapes and rich culture, Kermanshah is considered one of the cradles of human civilization.
According to cultural heritage experts, the region has continuously been settled by humans since ancient times. Numerous evidence, including Bisotun Hunters Cave from the Paleolithic Era, confirm the assumption.
The region was also one of the first places in which human settlements including Gaqieh, Tappeh Sarab and Ganj-Darreh were established in 7,000 years B.C. This is about the same time that the first potteries pertaining to Iran were made in Ganj-Darreh, near present-day Harsin. Kermanshah has some of the most interesting and famous archaeological sites. Its construction is attributed to Tahmoures Divband, the fabulous king of Pishdadian dynasty, but some others attribute it to the Sassanids. It was a glorious city in Sassanid period about the 4th century AD when it became a political city and a significant health center serving as a summer resort for Sassanid kings.
In A.D. 226, following a two-year war led by the Persian Emperor - Ardashir I - against Kurdish tribes in the region, the Empire reinstated a local Kurdish prince, Kayus of Medya, to rule Kermanshah. Within the dynasty known as the House of Kayus (also Kâvusakân) remained a semi-independent Kurdish kingdom lasting until A.D. 380 before Ardashir II removed the dynasty's last ruling member.
Kermanshah was conquered by the Arabs in A.D. 640 and called the town Qirmasin (Qirmashin). Under Seljuk rule in the 11th century, it was, and still is, a major cultural and commercial centre in Western Iran and the southern Kurdish region as a whole. The Safavids fortified the town, and the Qajars repulsed an attack by the Turks during Fath Ali Shah's rule (1797–1834).
Occupied by the Turkish Army in 1915 during World War I, it was evacuated in 1917. Kermanshah played an important role in Mashrota Movement in Qajar period and Republic Movement in Pahlavi period.
After The Islamic Revolution in the 1970's, the city and its provinces (also called Kermanshah) were shortly renamed Bakhtaran, apparently owing to the use of "Shah" in the name. After the Iran-Iraq War, however, they renamed it to Kermanshah. The City was hit hard during the Iran-Iraq War, and although it was rebuilt, it has never fully recovered.

Kermanshah Attractions:

KERMANSHAH CITY

An important station on the ancient trading route to Baghdad, Kermanshah is by far the largest and busiest city in this part of Iran. First built on a site of a few kilometers from the present city, it probably dates back to the 4th century A.D. with a beautiful setting, framed by permanently snow-clad mountains. Kermanshah should be avoided in winter, but the climate is very pleasant for the rest of the year. The city's situation is highly picturesque which is one of the liveliest market-centers of the province. The men wear large turbans on their heads and black dungarees tight round their waists and ankles. The women wear trousers and bright-colored scarves and sometimes brocade bodices. In the surrounding countryside various kinds of  fruit are grown with another local product sugar beet. Carpet weaving and manufacture of Gyves (canvas-covered shoes like the Spanish alpargata in appearance) have long been carried on in town.

Bisotun

Bisotun can be called a living museum of Iranian civilization from ancient times to the present. The Bisotun (or Behistun) mountain stands some 30 km to the northeast of Kermanshah on the way to Hamadan. According to Carleton Coon, prehistoric man inhabited Bisotun long before Achaemenians; he found it while excavating a cave; there is evidence from 1949 showing a highly developed industry datable to the Middle Paleolithic, indicating that Bisotun was inhabited during the Wurm glaciation. On the roadside there are Achaemenian inscriptions and relief engraved high up(100 and 40-50 m above the ground) on the Bisotun cliff. Altogether twelve hundred lines of inscriptions tell the story of the battles Darius had to wage in 521-520 BC against the governors who were trying to dismantle the Empire founded by Cyrus. The decisive battle took place on this site. A bas-relief portrays the king victory, unfortunately the scene showing him with his main enemy at his feet. The tablet of Darius I, is high up on the side of the cliff over the village of Bisotun which stands to a large pool. Below the tablet is a staircase up to a platform, from which you can see a shallow recess containing an inscription in Greek and a rather worn mid-second century BC sculpture of Hercules (Heracles) on the back of a lion. The three languages in the inscriptions are Bablylonian, Elamite, and the old Persian. In the inscriptions, Darius gives the names of his ancestors and says "Eight of my family were kings before me and I am the ninth". We inherit kingship on both sides. The Bisotun sculptures are of the highest historic importance and have been created in 480 BC, the sixth year of Dariush reign. Within easy reach of the cliff there are a Median citadel, the walls of a Parthian settlement, a stone block carved with three Parthian figures, the foundations of a Sassanian bridge, and a grotto with evidence of occupation in Neanderthal times.

Tagh-e Bostan

The bas-relief at Taq-e Bostan (Arch of the garden) is Sassanid rock engravings. It is decorated with two grottoes, large and small, which have been cut out of a rock cliff rising high above a pool of clear water. The first one you come to is a majestic-bas relief depicting the investiture of Artaxerxes II, at the same time celebrating a victory over the Romans, by the deity Ahura Mazda to the right and Mithras, holding a symbolic sacred bunch of twigs, to the left. The next is a small arched recess carved out of the cliff in the 4th century A.D., showing Shapoor II and his grandson ( later Shapur III ), created by the latter as a testament to his own dynastic credentials. The third is a large grotto, depicting an armored figure holding a lance and seated on a now-headless horse. The figures are more formal and stylized than those of the Darius relief at Bisotun.