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 only tomb identified with certainty is that of Darius the Great (Darius I, c. 522–486 BC), because of two long inscriptions in which the king proudly says of himself:

I am Darius the great king, king of kings, king of countries containing all kinds of men, king in this great earth far and wide, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenid, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage.

Darius the King says: This which has been done, all that by the will of Ahuramazda I did. Ahuramazda bore me aid, until I did the work. May Ahuramazda protect me from harm, and my royal house, and this land: this I pray of Ahuramazda, this may Ahuramazda give to me!

The tomb is elaborately carved into the side of a stone mountain side.