Sasanian Timeline

4200 BCE – 1218 CE · 3 sites

All sites in this period

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.

ChalcolithicBronze AgeIron Age

The Achaemenid rock-cut tombs and Sasanian reliefs at Naqsh-e Rostam, Iran

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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.

ClassicalLate Antique

Continent Record

Oldest Fortress in Europe

Derbent

600 BCE – 700 CE

Ancient Caspian fortress city with monumental Sasanian walls controlling strategic passage between mountains and sea, continuously inhabited since the mid-first millennium BCE.

Iron AgeClassicalHellenistic