A stone statue of Hercules, the famous Greek myth, is carved in the heart of a rock at the foot of the famous Mount Bestoon, in Praw Mountain, 39 kilometers from Kermashan city, on the border of Harsin.
The statue is one of 28 historical monuments found on Mount Bestun. The statue is located next to the famous Silk Road or Khorasan Road, as called by local people, only 350 meters from Taqwasan and the Bestun Archaeological Sites.
History of the Statue of Hercules
The statue depicts a dignified man with curly hair and a naked body lying on his side on a lion's skin, holding a glass of wine in his left hand. (After the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, his wine glass was broken by unknown persons.) He placed his right hand on his right leg. The sculpture is built on a base 220 cm long, the statue's length is 147 cm, and its height is 150 cm. The statue is carved on a large rock and is backed to the mountain.
Next to the statue, an olive tree is carved on the rock and an arrow and a bow can be seen on the tree branch. Next to the tree, there is a carved blow pattern. Next to them is an inscription in the Greek alphabet on a tablet 43 cm long and 33 cm wide, written in seven lines. Under the statue is a lion carved two meters long and 114 centimeters high.
According to the research, the statue of Hercules was built in 153 BC during the reign of Mehrdad I (Ashk 9th in the Ashkani dynasty (136-174 BC)).
The discovery of the statue of Hercules
This sculpture was discovered by chance in 1956 during the construction of the Kermashan-Hamedan Road. That year, when workers were cutting the slope of the mountain to build the road, they felt that their bulldozer was stuck in a very hard and large rock, so they stopped work and dug the gravel and mud by hand, revealing the statue of Hercules.
The work of laying the road from Kermashan to Hamedan was stopped due to the discovery of the statue. The excavation around the statue took twelve days. The head of the statue was separated from the body due to the impact of the bulldozer. After searching the rocks in the area, the head of the statue was found and replaced, but it turned out that part of the beard was broken.
Theft of the head of the statue of Hercules
The head of the statue was stolen twice in 1977 and 1993 but was later found. It was badly damaged in the 1993 theft, so to prevent the theft of the valuable relic, it was decided to make a similar head of the same stone and replace the real head of the statue. The actual head of the statue is preserved in the Treasury of Historical Monuments.
