Image Details

© SELA ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT (2018)

IMPERIAL INSCRIPTION. Carved on a cliff face 300 feet above the ground, the Nabonidus Inscription depicts the Babylonian monarch Nabonidus with a moon, solar disk, and star. Wearing a long robe and conic crown, Nabonidus holds a staff in one hand and lifts the other to his mouth in a gesture of prayer. The accompanying inscription mentions a city gate, soldiers, and the fifth year. Although it is too weathered to say definitively, the text probably refers to the conquest of Sela (and Edom). The monument measures about 10 by 6.5 feet.