Page 59 - All About History - Issue 33-15

Cyrus the Great

The birthplace of Persia
The Persians were originally nomadic pastoral
people in the western Iranian plateau. By 850 BCE,
they were calling themselves the Parsa and had
begun to develop infrastructure to support their
growing influence. Pasargadae was the capital of
the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great.

CASPIAN SEA

INDIA

PERSIA
ASSYRIA Susa Pasargadae
Assur Persepolis ARABIAN
SEA
Babylon PERSIAN GULF
Expanding its borders
The walls of Babylon had been
considered impenetrable, but
EAN
Cyrus devised a plan to take it via
water. The city fell in 539 BCE,
EGYPT and the Neo-Babylonian Empire
became part of Cyrus’s kingdom.

RED SEA

Diversity
The history of the Persian Empire is full of cultural
AFRICA exchanges. They assimilated peoples’ traditions
from Egypt to below the Caspian sea and the
Persian Gulf. The incorporation of tradition was
one of its constant characteristics.

Pottery was one Religion
of the first artistic Persian people were tolerant of
expressions of the other regions’ religions. Their
ancient empire. Later official religion was Mazdaism.

on, goldsmithing and With the Muslim conquest,
silversmithing became Islam became the offi cial and
more important. state religion.

© Look & Learn, Sol 90
troops in Greece in 4 9 BC under Mardonius.

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