The earliest examples of visual representations in Persian history may be traced back to the bas-reliefs in Persepolis (c. 500 BC). Bas relief is a method of sculpting that entails carving or etching away the surface of a flat piece of stone or metal. Persepolis was the ritual center of the ancient kingdom of the Achaemenids, and “the figures at Persepolis remain bound by the rules of grammar and syntax of the visual language.