Iran

A moulded polychrome tile in the cuerda seca (dry cord) technique, gilded, dated 824 AH / 1421 CE — from a Timurid or early Safavid architectural context in Iran. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, the Achaemenid Empire became the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen, stretching from the Balkans to the Indus Valley.