Persian Empire

The Persian Empire was founded in around 550 BC by Cyrus II, called Cyrus the Great. His dynasty is known as the Achaemenid, named after the legendary king Achaemenes. The empire lasted for 200 years, encompassing diverse peoples and reaching its greatest extent under Darius I. Under Darius, the Persian Empire became the largest of its time. As the map illustrates, the empire stretched from North Africa to India and from the Aral Sea to the Persian Gulf. It covered 7,500,000 square kilometres (2,900,000 square miles), making it comparable with the Roman Empire and the Chinese Han Empire. Its inhabitants were extremely diverse: as well as the Persians and the Medes, there were Egyptians, Greeks, Scythians, Babylonians, Bactrians and Indians, among others.