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The world had never seen an empire this size. Starting with the conquests of Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, from his kingdom of Parsa in today's southern Iran, the Persian Empire, within 50 years, stretched from the Mediterranean to the Indus River. Brilliant military tactics built the empire, but what held it together was an unprecedented ideal created by Cyrus: Respect for diverse cultures under one crown. The Achaemenids, the ruling family, held power for more than two centuries.
The video above is credits to www.history.com / A History Channel Production
The Persian Empire was one of the most mysterious civilizations in the ancient world. In 480 BC, about 50 million people lived in the Persian Empire, about 44% of the world's population at the time, making it the largest empire by population percentage.