Achaemenid Empire

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550 BC – 330 BC · up to 5,623 thousand km² · Middle East

Capital: Babylon, Pasargadae, Persepolis, Susa, Ecbatana

The Achaemenid Empire was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. At peak, its territorial extent was roughly 5.5 million square kilometres, making it the largest empire of its time. Based in the Iranian plateau, it stretched from the Balkans and Cyrenaica in the west to the Indus Valley in the east, including Anatolia, Cyprus, Mesopotamia, the Levant, the South Caucasus, parts of Eastern Arabia, and large parts of Central Asia.

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Predecessors: Median Kingdom, Neo-Babylonian Empire, Lydia, Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt

Successors: Macedonian Empire, Twenty-eighth Dynasty of Egypt, Sogdia

Events on its territory

• 550 BC Cyrus the Great founds the Achaemenid Empire
• 499 BC–493 BC Ionian Revolt
• 331 BC Battle of Gaugamela