How Big Were Iran’s Empires
Caption
How big were Iran’s empires? Banner length = peak area; width = years in power. Achaemenids ~5.5M km² (3.3× modern Iran), Timurids 4.4M, Seljuks 3.9M. The Parthians lasted longest (~470 years) but peaked smaller. Each banner is a peak, not a constant. Estimates vary by source.
Short takes
Longest is not biggest: Parthians ruled ~470 years (247 BCE–224 CE), Sasanians ~427, Achaemenids only ~220. But the Achaemenids covered about twice the area of either.
Which Iranian empire gets too little credit: Medes, Parthians, Samanids or Timurids? Make your case in one line.
Image description
Bar chart drawn as hanging banners: each Iranian dynasty is a banner whose length is its peak area and whose width is its years in power. The Achaemenids are longest at 5.5 million km², far past the dashed line for modern Iran (1.65 million).
