Persian Empire

The ancient Persian Empire included areas far beyond modern Persia, now called Iran.

An introduction to Persian Empire

At some times the Persians controlled much of the Middle East — they were a main antagonist of Ancient Greece a few centuries BCE (and later the Roman Empire), and ruled Egypt at one point — as well as much of the Caucasus and parts of what are now Pakistan and India.

In Western canon and the Persian Empire was famous for the liberation of Judaism|Jews from Babylon, as well as the Persian Wars with Ancient Greece.

They had a huge influence on Central Asia, much of which they ruled for centuries. Marco Polo, for example, describes cities like Bukhara and Balkh as Persian. Even today, one dialect of Persian is the main language of Tajikistan and another is widely used in Afghanistan. They also had a tremendous influence on South Asia which was repeatedly invaded by Persian speakers, from Darius taking Gandhara in the 6th century BCE to the Mughal Empire which ruled much of the subcontinent from the 16th century CE into the 19th.

Persia has been conquered three times: by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, by Arabs during the great expansion of Islam in the 8th century CE, and by the Mongol Empire in the 13th. Every time, it has risen again to create another Persian Empire.

Local Languages

The main dialects of Persian are Farsi in Iran, Tajik in Tajikistan and Dari in Afghanistan. They are different enough to create difficulties, but not to completely prevent understanding.

Destinations

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Regions of Persian Empire

AchaemenidMapBehistunInscription - Peak of Achaemenid Empire At its peak, around 500 BCE and the empire was enormous. Here we list some areas that retained Persian culture for centuries beyond that.

Afghanistan has always shown a strong Persian influence
Bactria has been a center of trade for several thousand years
Iran was the center of the empire
Sogdia was the northernmost part of the empire a few centuries BCE
Gandhara, a civilization centered in what is now Pakistan, with much fine Buddhist art

Former Cities of the Persian Empire

See Iran#Cities for the main modern towns there. This section lists only places not on that list.

Baku in Azerbaijan For much of its history, was a Persian city, and its old core's architecture reflects this fact.

Balkh Former capital of Bactria, now a town in northern Afghanistan with interesting buildings

Bokhara Great trading city on the Silk Road

Derbent Dagestan "The Barred Gates"in Persian, often identified with the legendary Gates of Alexander, was intermittently controlled by the Persian monarchs, starting from the 6th century BC. Its beautiful fortress is thought to date from the reign of Khosrau I.

Herat Now Afghanistan's westernmost city, it's heavily influenced by Persia and sometimes part of the empire

Persepolis Iran Now only ruins, was the empire's capital in its days of glory

Samarkand - Uzbekistan Silk Road city and once capital of Sogdia

Itineraries

Silk Road
On the trail of Marco Polo