At its height about 500 BC, the Achaemenid dynasty rulers of the Persian empire had conquered Asia as far as the Indus River, Greece, and North Africa including what is now Egypt and Libya.
At its height about 500 BC, the Achaemenid dynasty rulers of the Persian empire had conquered Asia as far as the Indus River, Greece, and North Africa including what is now Egypt and Libya. Among the longest-lasting empires on the planet, the Persians were finally conquered in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great, but Persian dynasties remained a coherent empire up into the 6th century AD, and Iran was called Persia until the 20th century.