Darius the Great (Darius I) decided to be buried in a tomb cut on a high cliff near Persepolis, the new capital of the Achaemenid Empire he had founded. Three of his successors, most likely his son Xerxes, Artaxerxes I and Darius II, decided to have similar tombs at the same site.

The Achaemenid tombs have the shape of a cross. The tomb itself occupies the horizontal axis. It depicts the front of a palace with a central entrance which led to a small funerary chamber.