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.
The Persian Empire was vast - the largest that the world had ever seen. It encompassed for much of its history all or most of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, and Cyprus, along with parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan,India, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Greece also from North Africa to the Indus Valley.
Despite this, administration of the empire was efficient. At its heart was the great king and his court. His territory was divided into provinces (satrapies), each controlled by a governor (satrap) or 'protector of the realm'. The institution began with Cyrus until under Darius there were about twenty satrapies. The satraps were Persian nobles, often relatives of the king, and their loyalty had to be absolute.
The subject peoples were many and varied, with some inhabiting cities and others living tribal, nomadic lives. However, despite its all-powerful ruler, the empire was inclusive and tolerant of different languages, religions and cultures.
Persia has long been used by the West to describe the nation of Iran, its people, or its ancient empire. It derives from the ancient Greek name for Iran, Persis. This in turn comes from the name of Cyrus's main clan "Pars" or "Parsa" which has given its name also to a province in southern Iran, called Fars in the modern Persian language and Pars in Middle Persian. Persis is the Hellenized form of Pars, based on which other European nations termed the area Persia. This province was the core of the original Persian Empire. Westerners referred to the state as Persia until March 21, 1935, when Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call the country by its native name. Some Persian scholars protested this decision because changing the name separated the country from its past. It also caused some Westerners to confuse Iran with Iraq; so in 1959 his son Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi announced that both Persia and Iran can be used interchangeably.
When the rest of the world lived in caves, the Persian Empire was building castles and pyramids.
The Persian culture was the only culture in history to never use slaves to build their empire.
*The world's largest uncut diamond - "Darya-ye Noor" in Persian means "The Sea of Light". This is the sister diamond to the world's largest cut diamond, the "Kooh-e Noor" which is its Persian name and means "The Mountain of Light". The Kooh-e Noor diamond which now sits in the London Tower, belonged once to Iran, hence its Persian name, but was looted by a certain Ahmed Beg upon the asassination of Nader Shah of Iran in 1747. Ahmed Beg took the Kooh-e Noor diamond along with other valuable jewels of the Iranian Crown Jewels and left Iran. The gem was later taken to England where the East India Company took possession of it. In 1850 it was presented to Queen Victoria. At present it is kept in the Tower of London
