Skip to content
Conflict Middle East

Conquests of Cyrus the Great

559 BCE – 530 BCE · 29 years

Cyrus the Great overthrew the Median Empire, conquered Lydia and Neo-Babylonia, and united the ancient Near East under the Achaemenid Persian Empire — the largest empire the world had yet seen.

See it on the timeline

Belligerents

The main peoples, kingdoms and states involved.

  • Persian Empire (Cyrus II)
  • Median Empire, Lydia, Neo-Babylonian Empire & Massagetae

Key moments

Defining events in the Conquests of Cyrus the Great.

  1. 550 BC Battle of Pasargadae
  2. 547 BC Battle of Thymbra / Fall of Sardis
  3. 539 BC Fall of Babylon
  4. 530 BC Battle of the Jaxartes

Elsewhere in Middle East at the time

Records whose own span overlaps this one, found by the same test the canvas draws with. The bar under each card is where it sits inside this one.

See the whole view

Landmark · Middle East

Pasargadae

546 BCE – 330 BCE

Polity · Middle East

Achaemenid Empire

549 BCE – 329 BCE

Trade route · Middle East

Nile River Trade

3000 BCE – 30 BCE

Landmark · Middle East

Great Pyramid of Giza

2560 BCE – still standing

Polity · Middle East

Babylonia

1900 BCE – 538 BCE

Trade route · Middle East

Mesopotamian Trade Network

3000 BCE – 500 BCE

Landmark · Middle East

Dead Sea

3000 BCE – still standing

Polity · Middle East

Egypt

Attested 3000 BCE – 2026 CE

Dated moments inside this span

Events the timeline places between 559 BCE and 530 BCE.

546 BCE Pasargadae 550 BCE Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

And in the rest of the world

Records running through the same years, on the other side of the map.

Temple of Artemis at Ephesus Landmark · Europe 550 BCE – 262 CE Maya chiefdoms and states Polity · Americas 2000 BCE – 1521 CE Lapita Expansion (Western Polynesia) Trade route · Oceania 1500 BCE – 500 BCE Spring and Autumn Period Wars Conflict · East Asia 771 BCE – 476 BCE Confucius Figure · State of Lu, China 551 BCE – 479 BCE Grand Canyon Landmark · Americas 3000 BCE – still standing
Image credits6 pictures from Wikimedia Commons