Bible Locations

Persia was the land of the Persians and the empire they built. In 550 BC, Cyrus the Great united the Medes and Persians, and in 539 BC he captured Babylon. The next year, he let the Jews return and rebuild the temple (Ezra 1). His successors included Darius I, who allowed the temple to be finished in 516 BC, Xerxes, called Ahasuerus in Esther, and Artaxerxes, who sent Ezra and Nehemiah. The book of Esther is set in Susa, one of the Persian capitals, where Esther saved her people. Daniel 8 pictures Persia as a ram with two horns, and Daniel 10 mentions "the prince of the Persian kingdom" opposing an angel. The empire stretched from India to Egypt and Greece until Alexander the Great conquered it in 331 BC. Its ruins at Persepolis, Pasargadae and Susa survive, and the Cyrus Cylinder records his policy of returning captive peoples.