Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE
A carved limestone panel from the staircases of the Apadana, the great hall at Persepolis: a bearded figure in a cap with a staff stands beside an animal, one of the delegations that line the stairs, with a rosette frieze above. The programme shows peoples of the empire in orderly procession toward the king.
- Date
- 0000
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Achaemenid royal court (building programme of Darius I, completed under Xerxes I)
- Country
- Achaemenid Empire
- Medium
- Object
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Achaemenid Empire
- Leader
- Darius I
- Audience
- Mixed
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Techniques
- Card stackingManufactured consensus
- Regime
- Achaemenid Persia
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons file page; Flickr photograph by A. Davey; the ancient relief itself is out of copyright)
Photo: A. Davey (Portland, Oregon), via Flickr and Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Text on the object
No printed or legible text on this relief panel.







