Achaemenid Persian Timeline

4200 BCE – 1221 CE · 6 sites

The Achaemenid empire joined Iranian plateau palaces to a road and satrapy system stretching toward the Aegean and the Indus. Persepolis and Pasargadae are ceremonial capitals; many Atlas sites record Achaemenid layers inside older Near Eastern cities.

All sites in this period

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Country Record

Known by the Most Names in Iran

Persepolis

518 BCE – 330 BCE

Ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, built by Darius I c. 518 BCE and sacked by Alexander the Great in 330 BCE, renowned for its monumental terraces and reliefs.

322

Classical

82

Country Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Iran

Susa

4200 BCE – 1218 CE

Ancient Susa, among the world's oldest cities, flourished from 4200 BCE as the Elamite lowland capital and later a ceremonial Achaemenid center, yielding treasures like the Code of Hammurabi stele.

421

ChalcolithicBronze AgeIron Age

71

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Country Record

Oldest Complex in Iran

Pasargadae

546 BCE – 330 BCE

Pasargadae, the first dynastic capital of the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great in 546 BCE, exemplifies early Persian royal architecture and urban planning.

322

Classical

69

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Continent Record

Oldest Necropolis in Asia

Naqsh-e Rostam

520 BCE – 300 CE

A towering cliff near Persepolis in Iran carved with the rock-cut tombs of four Achaemenid "Great Kings," including Darius the Great, set above a series of monumental reliefs added centuries later by the Sasanian dynasty. Together they compress over a thousand years of Persian imperial art into a single rock face.

311

ClassicalLate Antique

67

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Ancient Merv

500 BCE – 1221 CE

One of the greatest oasis cities of Central Asia — successive walled cities of Margiana on the Murghab delta in present-day Turkmenistan, bridging Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sasanian, and Islamic Silk Road empires until Mongol destruction in 1221.

21

ClassicalHellenisticRoman

65

Country Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Pakistan

Taxila

518 BCE – 600 CE

An ancient city in the Pothohar Plateau of Pakistan where Achaemenid Persia, Alexander's Macedonia, and Mauryan India met — its three successive city sites and Buddhist monasteries document 1,200 years of continuous urban life at the crossroads of the ancient world.

31

Iron AgeClassicalHellenistic

65