Dette er den største oldtidsinskripsjonen jeg har sett noe sted, flere meter høy og bred. På gammelpersisk, babylonsk og elamittisk gjør Xerxes det helt klart at her er det forbudt å selge øl på søndager. Og at det er han som er kongen over alle konger, så klart. Og at han skrev noe her, fordi ingen andre hadde gjort det. Gudene må vite hva Xerxes hadde gjort om han hadde hatt tilgang på spraymaling.

This is the largest really, really, really old inscription I have ever seen. It's several metres tall and wide, and 25 centuries old. The message comes from the Persian king Xerxes, and it can be seen on the south side of the Van Castle hill.

In Old Persian, Babylonian and Elamite, it says:

Ahuramazda is the great god, the greatest god
who created the sky and created the land and created humans
Who gave prosperity to the humans
Who made Xerxes king
King of many kings, being the only ruler of the totality of all lands

“I am Xerxes, the great king, the king of kings,
the king of the lands, king of all the languages,
king of the great and large land,
the son of king Darius the Achaemenian”

The king Xerxes says:
“the king Darius, my father, praised be Ahuramazda,
made a lot of good,
and this mountain, he ordered to work its cliff
and he wrote nothing on it
so, me, I ordered to write here.

May Ahuramazda protect me, with all the gods
and so my kingdom and what I have done.”