Restoration work on the tomb of Cyrus the Great was carried out over a period of 7 years.The restoration of the tomb of the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great, has been completed and its metal scaffolding removed. After three stages of restoration, the structure stands strong and will not sustain any further damage. The work on the historical site has gained UNESCO approval. According to manager of the restoration work, Hasan Rahsaz, the restoration and documentation of the process has been carried out with great precision by 8 archeological experts and modern-day equipment. The first stage of restoration began in 2000 when metal scaffolding was put around the tomb to allow experts to access every inch of the stone exterior to find, document and restore the damage to its 180 bricks and the 11 slabs of stone that make up its roof. Broken pieces were also gathered and used to rebuild and protect the sections exposed to snow and rain.

The tomb of Cyrus the Great with its metal scaffolding, near Shiraz, southwest Iran.In the second stage of the project, cement used for restoration in 1930 was removed and the process of anastylosis of broken and fallen parts began. The stone parts were then reattached in the Achaemenid style with the help of dovetail joints; laser scanners were used to determine their exact positions. In the last stage of restoration, the northern and western sides of the tomb were completely cleaned of limestone.

The Israeli human rights group known as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel on Saturday said Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territory "have created a situation of institutionalized discrimination and segregation." "The discrimination in services, budgets and access to natural resources between the two groups in the same territory constitutes a stark violation of the principle of equality, which (is reminiscent) in many and increasing ways (of) the apartheid regime that was applied in South Africa," a report from the group read. The report which has been published ahead of Wednesday's 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, notes that around 2.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank outside annexed Arab East Jerusalem (al-Quds) are subject to military law and administration. The 250,000 settlers, however, are treated under Israeli civilian law. Jewish settlers use a modern and developed road system, while Palestinians are forced to use "winding and dangerous roads," the report said. Israel has designated some of the roads in the West Bank for primary or exclusive use of the Jewish settlers. Palestinians are forbidden to use or are restricted in their use of more than 300 kilometers of roads in the West Bank while Israelis are free to use these roads with no restriction whatsoever. Citing UN figures, the group says 65 percent of roads leading to the 18 most populous Palestinian West Bank towns are blocked or controlled by military checkpoints. "The travel restrictions hamper the transportation of sick people and medical staff to hospitals. There is a shortage in medicine and medical supplies," the report said. The right group adds that the Israeli system is a sharp reminder of the South African system in which “the criteria was racially based unlike the ethnic-national criteria applied in the territories." The report also slams the Israeli-imposed on the Gaza Strip, which has left more than 1.5 million residents of the impoverished region without basic supplies, including food and medicine. "The blockade policy has almost completely destroyed the industry. Unemployment and poverty are surging... The blockade caused the collapse of local authorities that are struggling to provide residents basic services such as water, sewage and sanitation," says the report.

Ties between people, government based on religious beliefs

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that relations between people and the government in an Islamic system is based on religious beliefs.
Ahmadinejad made the remark in a special ceremony to launch an electronic communications system which bridges the gap between people and government in East Azarbaijan province.
The president, accompanied by his cabinet members, arrived in the northwestern city Tabriz on Wednesday on his 48th provincial tour.
Communication between people and officials in an Islamic government has roots in religious beliefs, the president said.
He said that the people put forward their views and opinions and this is the responsibility of officials to listen to people and help resolve their problems, he said.
The system will provide a suitable opportunity for people to easily get access to the country's officials, he said.
"I hope this would lead to a broad-based communication and interaction between the nation and the government in all fields."

THE GOOGLE BOMB STORY

In November 2004, National Geographic published a new edition of their World Atlas. In it, they had used the bogus name of Arabian Gulf in addition to the correct name Persian Gulf, to mark the body of water in southern Iran. Furthermore, they had used Arabic names on a few Iranian islands. Being a sensitive issue among Irainans, this quickly became a hot topic of discussion. Iranian officials condemned this but that did little in convincing National Geographic to correct its mistake. This is where we, the bloggers, came in. I had heard about and seen google bombs before. In short, a google bomb is a way to influence search results for targetted keywords. I decided to implement one for this issue since everything seemed to be in favor of making it a success; it was an issue that thousands of Iranian bloggers felt strongly about, the term 'Arabian Gulf' was suitable for making a google bomb, and it was a civilized and creative way to voice our objections. So I made a mock page (+), resembling a 404 error message which said 'the gulf you are looking for does not exist'. I asked other bloggers to link to that page. The response was simply overwhelming. Within a week, hundreds of blogs and websites had taken part and the google bomb exploded, creating a frenzy of media hype. It appeared on an AFP article and Yahoo! News, It also made the first page of BBC news page. With the help of this media buzz, along with lobbying of Iranian Americans (NIAC) in the US and their meetings with the National Geogrpahic, they finally retreated and removed the 'Arabian Gulf' phrase from their maps and fixed the other errors as well. This was a huge victory, and was perhaps the first time Irainan bloggers united to really make a difference. Today, a year on, the google bomb is still working, and it is still used as an example of the power of blogs whenever there is a discussion on Iranian blogs. I have gathered all the news coverage regarding the google bomb below. If the original link is no longer active, you can read the transcript. If you know of any other articles regarding this, please let me know

Persian Arts has a very ancient history and tradition. It's attracted not only in Asia and Europe but also around the Globe.

Persian Arts spread in different fields like Architecture, Calligraphy, Carpets, Cinema, Music, Painting and Different types of Crafts. In Iran, as in all Islamic societies, art favors the non-representational, the derivative and the stylized rather than the figurative, the innovative and the true-to-life. Accurate representation of the human form has never been a part of traditional Islamic art, and though portraiture is not forbidden by Shiite Islam, it never really caught on in Iran until the introduction of the camera.
Many Iranian art forms predate the Arab conquest, but since nearly all of them reached their peak within the Islamic era, religious influences are rarely completely absent. Favorite motifs in Iranian art are geometrical shapes such as medallions and meanders; grapevines and other floral patterns, often very complex; and highly stylized real or imaginary creatures such as lions, elephants, peacocks, phoenixes and griffins. Human figures do turn up, but they tend to be very formalized. Calligraphy is highly prized in Iran and often merges into pictorial art, though modern examples are works of art in their own right

One of the most awe-inspiring monuments of the ancient world, Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenian empire. It was built during the reign of Darius I, known as Darius the Great (522-485 BC), and developed further by successive kings. The various temples and monuments are located upon a vast platform, some 450 metres by 300 metres and 20 metres in height. At the head of the ceremonial staircase leading to the terrace is the 'Gateway of All Nations' built by Xerxes I and guarded by two colossal bull-like figures.
Darius was the greatest of all the Persian kings. He extended the empires borders into India and Europe. He also fought two wars with the Greeks which were disastrous.
Darius established a government which became a model for many future governments:
Established a tax-collection system;
Allowed locals to keep customs and religions;
Divided his empire into districts known as Satrapies;
Built a system of roads still used today;
Established a complex postal system;
Established a network of spies he called the "Eyes and Ears of the King."
Built two new capital cities, one at Susa and one at Persepolis.

Cambyses II story and story about Darius I - Darius the Great

From Egypt Cambyses attempted the conquest of Kush, i.e. the kingdoms of Napata and Meroe, located in the modern Sudan. But his army was not able to cross the deserts after heavy losses he was forced to return. In an inscription from Napata (in the Berlin museum) the Nubian king Nastesen relates that he had beaten the troops of Kembasuden, i.e. Cambyses, and taken all his ships (H. Schafer, Die Aethiopische Kِnigsinschrift des Berliner Museums, 1901).
Another expedition against the Siwa Oasis failed likewise, and the plan of attacking Carthage was frustrated by the refusal of the Phoenicians to operate against their kindred.
Death of Cambyses
Meanwhile in Persia a usurper, the Magian Gaumata, arose in the spring of 522, who pretended to be the murdered Bardiya (Smerdis) and was acknowledged throughout Asia. Cambyses attempted to march against him, but, seeing probably that success was impossible, died by his own hand (March 521). This is the account of Darius, which certainly must be preferred to the traditions of Herodotus and Ctesias, which ascribe his death to an accident. According to Herodotus (3.64) he died in the Syrian Ecbatana, i.e. Hamath; Josephus (Antiquites xi. 2. 2) names Damascus; Ctesias, Babylon, which is absolutely impossible.
According to Herodotus, Cambyses sent an army to threaten the Oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis. The army of 50,000 men was halfway across the desert when a massive sandstorm sprung up, burying them all. Although many Egyptologists regard the story as a myth, people have searched for the remains of the soldiers for many years. These have included Count Laszlo de Almasy (on whom the novel The English Patient was based) and modern geologist Tom Brown. Some believe that in recent petroleum excavations, the remains may have be uncovered. A 2002 novel by Paul Sussman The Lost Army Of Cambyses recounts the story of rival archaeological expeditions searching for the remains.

Darius I - Darius the Great (521-486 BC)

The empire then reached its greatest extent under Darius I. He led conquering armies into the Indus River valley and into Thrace in Europe. His invasion of Greece was halted at the Battle of Marathon.
Darius I, who ascended the throne in 521 BC, pushed the Persian borders as far eastward as the Indus River, had a canal constructed from the Nile to the Red Sea, and reorganized the entire empire, earning the title 'Darius the Great.'
Darius (Greek form Dareios) is a classicized form of the Old Persian Daraya-Vohumanah, Darayavahush or Darayavaush, which was the name of three kings of the Achaemenid Dynasty of Persia: Darius I (the Great), ruled 522-486 BCE, Darius II (Ochos), ruled 423-405/4 BCE, and Darius III (Kodomannos), ruled 336-330 BCE. In addition to these, the oldest son of Xerxes I was named Darius, but he was murdered before he ever came to the throne, and Darius, the son of Artaxerxes II, was executed for treason against his own father.
According to A. T. Olmstead's book History of the Persian Empire, Darius the Great's father Vishtaspa (Hystaspes) and mother Hutaosa (Atossa) knew the prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster) personally and were converted by him to the new religion he preached, Zoroastrianism.
The empire of Darius the Great extended from Egypt in the west to the Indus River in the east. The major satrapies or provinces of his Empire were connected to the center at Persepolis, in the Fars Province of present-day Iran. The Royal Road connected 111 stations to each other. Messengers riding swift horses informed the king within days of turmoil brewing in lands as distant as Egypt and Sughdiana.

In next time post about Perspolice.

Cambyses II

Cyrus' son, Cambyses II, was next in line to rule. When Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 BC he was employed in leading religious ceremonies (Chronicle of Nabonidus), and in the cylinder which contains Cyrus's proclamation to the Babylonians his name is joined to that of his father in the prayers to Marduk. On a tablet dated from the first year of Cyrus, Cambyses is called king of Babel. But his authority seems to have been quite ephemeral; it was only in 530 BC, when Cyrus set out on his last expedition into the East, that he associated Cambyses on the throne, and numerous Babylonian tablets of this time are dated from the accession and the first year of Cambyses, when Cyrus was "king of the countries" (i.e. of the world). After the death of his father in the spring of 528 BC, Cambyses became sole king. The tablets dated from his reign in Babylonia run to the end of his eighth year, i.e. March 521 BC. Herodotus (3. 66), who dates his reign from the death of Cyrus, gives him seven years five months, i.e. from 528 to the summer of 521.

It was quite natural that, after Cyrus had conquered Asia, Cambyses should undertake the conquest of Egypt, the only remaining independent state of the Eastern world.

Before he set out on his expedition he killed his brother Bardiya (Smerdis), whom Cyrus had appointed governor of the eastern provinces. The date is given by Darius, whereas the Greek authors narrate the murder after the conquest of Egypt. The war took place in 525, when Amasis had just been succeeded by his son Psammetichus III. Cambyses had prepared for the march through the desert by an alliance with Arabian chieftains, who brought a large supply of water to the stations.

King Amasis had hoped that Egypt would be able to withstand the threatened Persian attack by an alliance with the Greeks.But this hope failed the Cypriot towns and the tyrant Polycrates of Samos, who possessed a large fleet, now preferred to join the Persians, and the commander of the Greek troops, Phanes of Halicarnassus, went over to them. In the decisive battle at Pelusium the Egyptians were beaten, and shortly afterwards Memphis was taken. The captive king Psammetichus was executed, having attempted a rebellion. The Egyptian inscriptions show that Cambyses officially adopted the titles and the costume of the Pharaohs, although we may very well believe that he did not conceal his contempt for the customs and the religion of the Egyptians.

In next time post all of Cambyses II story and start new story about Darius I - Darius the Great

Achaemenid Persia (648 BC-330 BC)

The First Persian State: Achaemenid Persia (648 BC-330 BC)

Achaemenids were the first line of Persian rulers, founded by Achaemenes (Hakaimanish), chieftain of the Persians around 700 BC.
Around 653 BC, the Medes came under the domination of the Scythians, and the son of Achaemenes, a certain Teispes, seems to have led the nomadic Persians to settle in southern Iran around this time -- eventually establishing the first organized Persian state in the important region of Anshan as the Elamite kingdom was permanently destroyed by the Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal (640 BC).
The kingdom of Anshan and its successors continued to use Elamite as an official language for quite some time after this, although the new dynasts spoke Persian, an Indo-Iranian tongue.
Teispes' descendants branched off into two lines, one line ruling in Anshan, while the other ruled the rest of Persia. Cyrus II the Great united the separate kingdoms around 559 BC.

Cyrus the Great (559-529 BC)

"I am Cyrus, who founded the empire of the Persians.

Grudge me not therefore, this little earth that covers my body."

this time, the Persians were still tributary to the Median Empire ruled by Astyages.

Cyrus rallied the Persians together, and in 550 BC defeated the forces of Astyages, who was then captured by his own nobles and turned over to the triumphant Cyrus, now Shah of the Persian kingdom.
As Persia assumed control over the rest of Media and their large Middle Eastern empire, Cyrus led the united Medes and Persians to still more conquest. He took Lydia in Asia Minor, and carried his arms eastward into central Asia.
Finally in 539 BC, Cyrus marched triumphantly into the ancient city of Babylon. After this victory, he set the standard of the benevolent conqueror by issuing the Cyrus Cylinder. In this declaration, the king promised not to terrorize Babylon nor destroy its institutions and culture

The Cyrus Cylinder is an artifact of the Persian Empire, consisting of a declaration inscribed on a clay barrel. Upon his taking of Babylon, Cyrus the Great issued the declaration, containing an account of his victories and merciful acts, as well as a documentation of his royal lineage. It was discovered in 1879 in Babylon, and today is kept in the British Museum.

The royal history given on the cylinder is as follows: The founder of the dynasty was King Achaemenes (ca. 700 BC) who was succeeded by his son Teispes of Anshan. Inscriptions indicate that when the latter died, two of his sons shared the throne as Cyrus I of Anshan and Ariaramnes of Persia. They were succeeded by their respective sons Cambyses I of Anshan and Arsames of Persia. Cambyses is considered by Herodotus and Ctesias to be of humble origin. But they also consider him as being married to Princess Mandane of Media, a daughter of Astyages, King of the Medes and Princess Aryenis of Lydia. Cyrus II was the result of this union.

Cyrus was killed during a battle against the Massagetae or Sakas.

Persian Empire

Persian Empire

Persian timeline:

2000-1800 BC, Aryan migration from Southern Russia to Near East

Persia's earliest known kingdom was the proto-Elamite Empire followed byThe Medes:

Deioces, 728BC - 675BC
Phraortes (Kashtariti?), 675BC - 653BC
Scythian interregnum
Cyaxares, 625BC - 585BC
Astyages, 585BC - 550BC

628 BC, Birth of Zartosht, Zoroaster, the Persian Prophet

Achaemenid Dynasty
Achaemenes Teispes
Cyrus I
Cambyses I (Kambiz)
Cyrus the Great, Start of Achaemenid Empire, 559BC -530BC
Kambiz II, 530BC - 522BC
Smerdis (the Magian), 522BC
Darius I the Great, 522BC - 486BC
Xerxes I (Khashyar), 486BC - 465BC
Artaxerxes I , 465BC - 425BC
Xerxes II, 425BC - 424BC (45 days)
Darius II, 423BC - 404BC
Artaxerxes II, 404BC - 359BC
Artaxerxes III, 359BC - 339BC
Arses, 338BC - 336BC
Darius III, 336BC - 330BC

The name ' Persia ' has long been used by the West to describe the nation of Iran, its people, or its ancient empire. It derives from the ancient Greek name for Iran, Persis. This in turn comes from a province in the south of Iran, called Fars in the modern Persian language and Pars in Middle Persian. Persis is the Hellenized form of Pars, based on which other European nations termed the area Persia. This province was the core of the original Persian Empire. Westerners referred to the state as Persia until March 21, 1935, when Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call the country by its native name. Some Persian scholars protested this decision because changing the name separated the country from its past. It also caused some Westerners to confuse Iran with Iraq; so in 1959 his son Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi announced that both Persia and Iran can be used interchangeably.

Next Post: Persia civilization and Iran.