At its height, about 500 BC, cities and towns of the Persian Empire under the Achmaenids were scattered into Asia as far as the Indus River, Greece, and North Africa including what is now Egypt and Libya.
Persepolis (Iran)
Shirley Schermer (c) 2004
Persepolis is the name of an archaeological ruin, part of the Achaemenid Dynasty of the Persian Empire, established by King Darius about 515 BC.
Pasargadae (Iran)
Pasargadae was the ancient capital city of the Achaemenid Dynasty built by Cyrus II (also known as Cyrus the Great) in the 6th century BC, and thus part of the Persian Empire.
Merv Oasis (Turkmenistan)
The Merv Oasis is located in the delta of the Murghab River in what is today southeastern Turkmenistan, about 200 kilometers north of the town of Takhta Bazar.
Nineveh (Iraq)
Nineveh was a capital city of the Assyrian empire; and its ruins are located within the modern city of Mosul, Iraq.
Nimrud (Iraq)
The capital city of Nimrud was built by the Assyrian king, Ashurnasirpal II, who reigned the Persian Empire between 883–859 B.C.
Babylon (Iraq)
Library of Congress via pingnews
The Mesopotamian capital of Babylon was at the height of its powers in the 7th century BC during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, just before the Persian conquest.
Akra (Pakistan)
Akra is a large important site of the Achaemenid dynasty, located in the Bannu Basin south of Peshawar in what is today Pakistan.
Band e Dukhtar (Turkey)
Band-e Dukhtar is an irrigation works located in the Anatolian plain and likely dated to the Achaemenid dynasty.
Firuzabad (Iran)
Firuzabad was the capital of Ardashir I (AD 224-241), the founder of the Sasanian empire of ancient Persia, the last Persian empire before the arrival of the Arabs.
Behistun Inscription
The Behistun inscription (also spelled Bisotun or Bisitun) is a 6th century BC Persian Empire carving, cut deep into a cliff on the Kermanshah-Tehran highway in Iran
