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The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire (550–330 BC) was among the first Persian Empires that ruled over significant portions of Greater Iran, and followed the Iranian Median Empire. At the height of its power, the Iranian Achaemenid Empire encompassed approximately between 7.5 and 7.7 million square kilometers
The empire was forged by Cyrus the Great, and spanned three continents, including territories of Afghanistan and Pakistan, parts of Central Asia, Asia Minor, Thrace, much of the Black Sea coastal regions, Iraq, northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and all significant population centers of ancient Egypt as far west as Libya. It is noted in western history as the foe of the Greek city states in the Greco-Persian Wars, for freeing the Jews from their Babylonian captivity, and for instituting Aramaic as the empire's official language.