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A considerably high number of historical records were identified about the preservation condition of the reliefs. This is due to the fact that the site was very popular among western scholars between 17th and 20th centuries.

Among the identified material, some decay phenomena were described in detail. A critical approach in reading the precedent visitors’ works was especially noted among most of the authors, which make it possible to follow the events through history. According to the first notes written about the site by Pietro Della Valle, the Italian traveler in 17th century (Masetti, 2018) “the very little fragility of the sculptures shows that they are so strong that can last as long as the mountains themselves” (Della Valle, 1843, p. 261). This condition as the beginning point of the survey may be compared with the evidence of decay, which are traced in the early 20th century photos and even the drawings from 18th and 19th centuries. However, it is more 74precise to compare the graphic resources with the present mapped condition. Figure 3 shows examples of specific phenomena, which were discovered.

Figure 2: Example of decay map of the rock reliefs decorations on the façade of Xerxes’s tomb.