Egyptian statue of Darius I

Egyptian statue of Darius I
Egyptian statue of Darius I
	Teheran)
Material	Grey granite from the Wadi Hammamat, eastern Egypt
Size	2.46 m high
Created	6-5th century BCE
Discovered	Susa (Iran), in 1972
Present location	National Museum of Iran (Tehran)

The Egyptian statue of Darius I is a statue of Achaemenid ruler

Darius I with Egyptian iconography and inscriptions. This is the best known example of in-the-round statuary that has remained from the Achaemenid period.^[1]

Darius I is depicted wearing a Persian dress, and armed with a dagger at his belt. The pleats of the right side of the robe are inscribed in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian

hieroglyphs. According to these inscriptions, the statue was made in Egypt at the request of Darius. This would have followed the Achaemenid conquest of Egypt.^[1]

The base of the statue is in Egyptian style. The front and back has a depiction of

Nile. The sides represent rows of vassals from numerous countries, with a total of twenty-four cartouches.^[1]^[3]

The statue was made in Egypt from grey granite, but was then transported to Susa, possibly by Xerxes I.^[1]

The statue is of grey granite that chemical analysis has indicated comes from the Wadi Hammamat in eastern Egypt. It was made in Egypt and later brought to Susa possibly in the reign of Xerxes.^[1]