Achaemenid cities

Isfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan Province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city has a population of approximately 2,238,000, making it the third-most populous city in Iran, after Tehran and Mashhad, and the second-largest metropolitan area.

Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (). It is situated in the plains of Marvdasht, encircled by the southern Zagros Mountains, Fars province of Iran. It is one of the key Iranian cultural heritage sites and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Susa ( ) was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers in Iran. It represents the current city of Shush, located on the site of ancient Susa. One of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa served as the capital of Elam and the winter capital of the Achaemenid Empire, and remained a strategic centre during the Parthian and Sasanian periods.

Pasargadae (; from , ; ) was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great (559–530 BC), located just north of the town of Madar-e-Soleyman and about to the northeast of the city of Shiraz. It is one of Iran's UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is considered to be the location of the Tomb of Cyrus, a tomb previously attributed to Madar-e-Soleyman, the "Mother of Solomon". It is a national tourist site administered by the Iranian culture of world heritage.

city in Tehran Province, Iran

Kashmar (; ) is a city in the Central District of Kashmar County, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Kashmar is near the river Shesh Taraz in the western part of the province, and south of the province's capital Mashhad, in Iran, from east to Bardaskan, west to Torbat-e Heydarieh, north to Nishapur, south to Gonabad. Until two centuries ago, this city was named Torshiz ().

Panjakent () or Penjikent () is a city in the Sughd province of Tajikistan on the river Zeravshan, with a population of 52,500 (2020 estimate). It was once an ancient town in Sogdiana. The ruins of the old town are on the outskirts of the modern city. The Sarazm Important Bird Area lies downstream of the city on the tugay-vegetated floodplain of the river.

thumb|Ancient cities of Caria|alt=Map of ancient cities of Caria

Nahavand () is a city in the Central District of Nahavand County, Hamadan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. It is south of the city of Hamadan, west of Malayer and northwest of Borujerd.

Darab () is a city in the Central District of Darab County, Fars province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.

Istakhr (Middle Persian romanized: Stakhr, ) was an ancient city in Fars province, north of Persepolis in southwestern Iran. It flourished as the capital of the Persian Frataraka governors and Kings of Persis from the third century BC to the early 3rd century AD. It reached its apex under the Sasanian Empire (224-651 AD), and was the hometown of the Sasanian dynasty. Istakhr briefly served as the first capital of the Sasanian Empire from 224 to 226 AD and then as principal city, region, and religious centre of the Sasanian province of Pars.

Neyriz () is a city in the Central District of Neyriz County, Fars province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.

Gonabad () is a city in the Central District of Gonabad County, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.

archeological site in Turkey

thumb|300px|Ganzak located on the map of Atropatene. Ganzak is an ancient town founded in northwestern Iran. The city stood somewhere south of Lake Urmia, and it has been postulated that the Persian nobleman Atropates chose the city as his capital. The exact location, according to Minorsky, Schippmann, and Boyce, is identified as being the ruins (37.011555°N, 46.193187°E) at Leylan, Malekan County in the Miandoab plain.

thumb|The ancient Persian fort at Eion (left) and the mouth of the Strymon (river)|Strymon (right), seen from Ennea Hodoi ([[Amphipolis).]]

thumb|upright=1.5|The location of Hellespontine Phrygia, and the provincial capital of Dascylium, in the [[Achaemenid Empire, c. 500 BC.]] Dascylium, Dascyleium, or Daskyleion (), also known as Dascylus, was a town in Anatolia some inland from the coast of the Propontis, at modern Ergili, Turkey. Its site was rediscovered in 1952 and has since been excavated.

thumb|300px|Map of the Achaemenid Empire showing the location of Cyropolis in [[Sogdiana.]]

thumb|300px|Doriscus appears on the northern shore of the Aegean Sea. Doriscus (, Dorískos) was a settlement in ancient Thrace (modern-day Greece), on the northern shores of Aegean Sea, in a plain west of the river Hebrus. It was notable for remaining in Persian hands for many years after the Second Persian invasion of Greece, and remained thus known as the last Persian stronghold in Europe.

Celaenae (Celænæ) or Kelainai () was an ancient city of Phrygia and capital of the Persian satrapy of Greater Phrygia, near the source of the Maeander River in what is today west central Turkey (Dinar of Afyonkarahisar Province), and was situated on the great trade route to the East.

ancient Bronze Age site, present-day Turkmenistan

archeological site in eastern Iran