CYRUS

"O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus who won the Persians their empire. Do not therefore grudge me this little earth that covers my body." Cyrus

The Tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasergad in Fars province, Iran, built in the sixth centruy B.C. The slanted roof is indicative of the ancestry of the Persians, who were one of the Aryan tribes that migrated to the Iranian Plateu from the stepps of northern and central Asia some time in the second millenium B.C.

Iranian rock carvers at work on the royal city of Persepolis (Takht-e-Jamshid) in Fars province

Horses of the modern Iranian army grazing at the foot of Mount Damavand in Mazandaran province in Northern Iran. The ancient Persians believed that Mount Damavand was where Zahak was imprisoned by their hero Farhad.

Winged bulls with human heads depicted in rock carvings at Persepolis. One can clearly see the artistic influence of the Persian's neighbors the Elamites and the Babolonians

Carved images of Persian soldiers at Persepolis. These were the soldiers who conquered half of the entire civilized world to establish the world's first true empire.