Thursday, January 18, 2024

the mark as colossal design (very rare these days)


The Behistun Inscription (also Bisitun or Bisutun, Modern Persian: بیستون ; Old Persian: Bagastana, meaning "the god's place or land"), a multi-lingual stone inscription approximately 15 meters high and 25 meters wide, located on Mount Behistun in Kermanshah Province, near the city of Kermanshah in western Iran.

The inscription was written by Darius I, the Great, sometime between his coronation as Zoroastrian king of kings of the Achaemenid, or Persian, Empire in the summer of 522 BCE and his death in autumn of 486 BCE.

What we get here is sheer size and visibility. Darius I was bigger than life, so size and visibility were paramount. Needles to say, the narrative depicted in the inscription was a local token for the peoples of Persia.

Today, political messages don't show in that manner (unless we are in a place like North Korea).

Statues of leaders Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il (North Korea), see the people's genuflections




Monument to the African Renaissance, Dakar, Senegal (49m,  160 feet tall, 2008-2012)

These statues, above, are a good example of grandiose political design.