The Persian Empire was only the beginning — this is the entire story of Iran, from a baby left to die on a mountainside in 550 BC to the Iran in today's headlines.
✅ The baby who built the largest empire on Earth
✅ The conqueror who ended up ruling like a Persian
✅ The poems Iran still reads 1,000 years later
Chapters: Cyrus the Great · Darius and the Royal Road · the Greek wars · Alexander burns Persepolis · Parthians and Sasanians · the Arab conquest and the Shahnameh · the Mongol fire · Safavids and oil · 1953, 1979, and the 2026 mirror.
Watch next in this series: The ENTIRE History of Ancient Greece Explained — and tomorrow, The ENTIRE History of the Ottoman Empire.
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Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica (Achaemenid Empire; Cyrus the Great; 1953 coup in Iran), Smithsonian Institution (Cyrus Cylinder), World History Encyclopedia (Shahnameh), Library of Congress (Iran: A Country Study).
AI-assisted illustrations and narration are used in our videos.
