Modern-day Iran is the geographic and cultural heartland of the Persian Empire.
When Alexander the Great burned Persepolis in 330 B.C.E., many of the Achaemenid Empire’s parchment records went up in flames, destroyed forever.
However, that same fire may have accidentally baked the clay tablets into hard pottery, saving them for thousands of years! Today, much of what we know about daily life in ancient Persia comes from
clay tablets.
Three major empires of ancient Persia include the Achaemenid Empire, the Parthian Empire, and the Sasanian Empire.
The name Persia comes from Pars, a region of Iran. The ancient Greeks, however, started using the name for Cyrus the Great’s vast empire.
Ancient Persian women enjoyed many rights and freedoms. They could own land, lead work teams, and run their own businesses.
In ancient Iran, people practiced a religion called Zoroastrianism. It is one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions—those are religions that believe in one supreme god.