Ancient Stone Carvings from the Sasanian Kings
You stand at the cliff face of Taq-e Bostan, 5 km from the city center, looking up at a life-sized warrior on horseback carved straight into the rock. This is King Khosrau II, mounted on his favorite charger Shabdiz, both dressed in full battle armor—a 7.45-meter-wide relief panel that has survived nearly 1,700 years of wind and rain in the Zagros mountains. Around the equestrian figure runs a delicate margin carved with flower patterns that once adorned the official costumes of Sasanian kings. Two winged angels with diadems hover above the arch, and the columns supporting it bear the sacred tree of life in intricate stone work. A sacred spring still flows beside these carvings, collecting in a reflecting pool at the mountain's base, exactly as it did when Sasanian rulers chose this spot as a waypoint on the ancient Silk Road.
At Behistun Inscription, 30 km further out, the scale becomes almost overwhelming. A cuneiform text carved 100 meters up a limestone cliff—approximately 15 meters high by 25 meters wide—records the conquests of King Darius I in three different scripts: Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian. The inscription shows Darius holding a bow as a sign of kingship, his left foot on the chest of the pretender Gaumata, while ten figures representing conquered peoples stand bound beside him and Faravahar the winged spirit hovers above giving blessing. This inscription did for cuneiform what the Rosetta Stone did for Egyptian hieroglyphs—it was the document that unlocked an ancient lost script. When British officer Henry Rawlinson transcribed and translated it in the 1830s and 1840s, he opened the door to reading Persian history directly from its source.
Museums Housed in Qajar-Era Mansions
The city's museums live in four period houses from the Qajar dynasty, each one a reason to wander the older quarters. The Zagros Paleolithic Museum holds the first collection in Iran devoted entirely to the Paleolithic period—stone tools and animal fossil bones excavated from sites across the province that show humans occupied this region from the Lower Paleolithic through the late Pleistocene. The Museum of Ethnography at Tekyeh Moavenalmolk displays the material culture of the people who shaped Kermanshah over centuries. The Museum of Epigraphy and Qajar Hand Writings at Tekieh Biglar Baigi contains inscriptions and manuscripts from the period when these houses were built. The Museum of Traditional Martial Art displays wax models of wrestlers who practiced the ancient sport of pahlevani wrestling, a tradition that has deep roots here.
Underground Worlds and Mountain Sanctuaries
Prav Cave in the Prav Mountains, lying between Taq Bostan and Bisotoon heights, opens into Asia's deepest cave system. Inside is a 762-meter-deep valley carved by flowing water, with streams running through chambers of icicles and colorful mineral columns. The sheer scale and depth make it a landscape unto itself, one where you descend into a world of stone and shadow shaped by water over millennia.
Qoori Qal'eh cave, 92 km from the city on the road toward Paveh, stretches 12 km with a spine of 3,140 meters. A stream flowing at 111 liters per second runs through the cave's developed first phase, and the surrounding forest of varied trees rises above the natural entrance. The chambers hold enchanting icicles and columns that catch light in colors created by mineral deposits—a sight the Wikivoyage guide calls never to be forgotten.
Talab-e Hashilan marsh, 32 km from Kermanshah, offers a different kind of immersion. This 1,500-hectare wetland contains tiny floating islands with plants that shelter 200 species of birds, a refuge for creatures following migration routes across western Iran.
Sacred Architecture and City Views
Mo'avenalmolk Mosque, also known as Tekyeh Moaven al-molk, is a Shia mourning site that breaks the rules of typical mosque decoration. Its tilings picture not only the Battle of Karbala and Islamic warrior-saints, but also Achaemenid kings and the ruins of Persepolis—a visual meditation on Persian history across religions and eras. The tiling work itself is the draw, a composition you will not see elsewhere.
Kouhestan Park sits north of the city near the Taq Bostan Mountains, a place where you gain perspective on Kermanshah itself. From here the full landscape opens—the city spreading below against the backdrop of the Zagros range that has shaped this region since humans first arrived.
When to Go and What to Taste
Kermanshah has cold winters with snow cover lasting weeks, and summers that are extremely hot but virtually rainless. Spring and fall bring rainfall and milder temperatures—the best seasons to move between outdoor sites and cave interiors without battling extremes. The city sits 525 kilometers west of Tehran, so plan travel time accordingly.
The people of Kermanshah speak Kermashani, a variety of Southern Kurdish, alongside Persian. The city has the largest Kurdish population in Iran, and that cultural identity shapes daily life, food, and hospitality. Seek out meals that reflect both Kurdish and Persian traditions rooted in the region.
These are the stones that witnessed empires rise and fall, the waters that have flowed through caves for millennia, and the tilings that hold history in glass and clay. Plan your route through Kermanshah, and begin with the question of whether you want to stand before the warrior-king Khosrau II first, or with King Darius and his cuneiform commands. Either way, the Zagros mountains and the artifacts they hold are waiting.