| | Media - Medes - Crystalinks |
 | | By 612 BC their strength had grown to the point where under the leadership of King Cyaxares (625-585 BC.)they launched a successful attack against the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. |
 | | In 550 BC the Medes were overthrown in turn by the forces of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Dynasty. |
 | | Cyrus (559-530 BC), the first great Persian king, created an empire extending from Anatolia to the Persian Gulf incorporating the former realms of both Assyria and Babylonia; and Darius the Great (522-486 BC), who succeeded him after various disturbances, extended the boundaries of the empire further still. |
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