The territory of ancient Persia corresponds roughly to that of the current Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Perside antique with the current province of Fars (area of Chiraz).

This immense empire poked the covetousness of the close kingdoms unceasingly. Alexandre the Large one, taking again the mythical dream of Philippe of Macedonia, conquered it and tried to carry out the union of the East and the Hellenism, but its work did not survive to him.

Persia east a set of high plateaus, of an altitude generally higher than 1000 m, often arid and even desert, enjoying an exceptional luminosity. They are dominated in north by the chain of Elbourz, which separates them from the Caspian Sea, and in the west by Zagros, which isolates them from the basin of the Tiger and Euphrate.