Cyprus
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Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, north of the Sinai Peninsula, south of the Anatolian Peninsula, and west of the Levant. It is geographically a part of West Asia, but its cultural ties and geopolitics are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the third-largest and third-most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is east of Greece, north of Egypt, south of Turkey, and west of Lebanon and Syria. Its capital and largest city is Nicosia. The northeast portion of the island is de facto governed by the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
A copper mine in Cyprus. In antiquity, Cyprus was a major source of copper.
Archaeological site of Khirokitia with early remains of human habitation during the Aceramic Neolithic period (reconstruction)
Zeus Keraunios, 500–480 BC, Nicosia museum
The Walls of Nicosia were built by the Venetians to defend the city in case of an Ottoman attack.
Achaemenid Empire
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The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the First Persian Empire, was the ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the largest empire by that point in history, spanning a total of 5.5 million square kilometres. The empire spanned from the Balkans and Egypt in the west, West Asia as the base, the majority of Central Asia to the northeast, and the Indus Valley to the southeast.
The Achaemenid Empire at its greatest territorial extent, under the rule of Darius the Great (522–486 BC)
Family tree of the Achaemenid rulers.
The Bible recounts Cyrus's liberation of the Israelites held captive in Babylon, allowing them to resettle and rebuild Jerusalem
Cyrus the Great's tomb, located at Pasargadae