The Achaemenid Postcard

The Achaemenid Empire .( 550–330 BC), or First Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia in Iran, founded in the 6th century BC by Cyrus the Great.The dynasty draws its name from King Achaemenes, who ruled Persis between 705 BC and 675 BC. The empire expanded to eventually rule over significant portions of the ancient world, which at around 500 BC stretched from parts of the Balkans (Bulgaria) and Thrace-Macedonia in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen, measured by population, not area. The Achaemenid Empire would eventually control Egypt as well. It was ruled by a series of monarchs who unified its disparate tribes and nationalities by constructing a complex network of roads.