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We continued walking further ahead till we sighted the highlight of the site - the magnificent 18x7 metre carved panel, depicting the Aeaemenid emperor Darius the Great with his generals behind him, standing victorious on the rebel Gaumata who refused to accept the succession of Darius, whose details I managed to see by using a telescope available for that purpose. Above them a winged figure identified as Ahura Mazda witnessing the submission of eight provincial governors, who presumably supported Gaumat's claim to the throne. The last figure of a Scythian chief is said to have been added a few years, after the main section was begun, which takes us back to 521 BCE.
I stood behind the magnifying lense longer than I had paid for and was supposed to, as I was trying to thoroughly admire every detail. The owner of the telescopes kindly offered to take some photos with my mobile phone put against the lense, which I later realised were magnificent, taking into account the circumstances.
Having stood in the heat for a while we decided to take advantage of the stream and the shade fairly close by, as we talked to another visitor. I was the only foreign visitor that day and was naturally looked at with added curiosity.
In order to have something to eat and most of all drink we had to walk across the site to the far end, which is said to have been the Royal Achaemenid road till we reached an old Caravanserai built in the Safavid era for pilgrims visitng holy shrines, which has been turned into a hotel. Meals were no longer served so we walked into the Café close by to have some fresh tea. It was a rather cozy place, which I found to be very well decorated.
On the way back to the main entrance we "stumbled" across some more carved stones with various figures and inscriptions.
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