Pasargadae

Pasargadae was the first capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, founded in the 6th century BC by Cyrus the Great near the site of his victory over the Median king Astyages in 550 BC, in what is now Fars province, Iran, about 90 kilometers northeast of Shiraz. The Achaemenids later shifted the seat of power to Persepolis, but Pasargadae's roughly 1.6-square-kilometer complex still preserves two royal palaces, garden remains that represent the earliest known example of the Persian fourfold chahar bagh garden design, and the fortress of Toll-e Takht. Its best-known monument is the Tomb of Cyrus, a six-stepped platform crowned by a small gabled burial chamber about 3.17 by 2.11 meters, whose design draws on both Mesopotamian ziggurats and Urartian tomb forms; ancient sources record an inscription on it declaring that its occupant gave the Persians an empire, and Alexander the Great believed it to be Cyrus's resting place.