The Bisotoon (or Behistun) mountain stands some 30 km to the northeast of Kermanshah via the main road to Hamadan, which itself follows the ancient caravan route along the bottom of a fine velvety fawn-colored cliff. Long before Achaemenians, even prehistoric man inhabited Bisotoon according to Carleton Coon, who found while excavating a cave there in 1949 evidence of a highly developed industry dateable to the Middle Paleolithic, indicating that Bisotoon was inhabited during the Wurm glaciation.