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refers to early civilizations in a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria), Persia (modern Iran), Armenia, Anatolia (modern Turkey), the Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan), and Ancient Egypt, from the beginnings of Sumer in the 6th millennium BC until the region's conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. The ancient Near East is considered the Cradle of Civilization. It was the first to practice intensive year-round agriculture; it produced the first writing system, invented the potter's wheel and then the vehicular- and mill wheels, created the first centralized governments, law codes and empires, as well as introducing social stratification, slavery and organized warfare, and it laid the foundation for the fields of mathematics, medicine and astronomy. | Selected biography
Darius I, the Great ( Old Persian: Dārayavahuš, "upholder of good", reigned 522 – 486 BC) ascended the Achaemendi throne amid controversy and bloodshed that claimed two sons of Cyrus the Great, but managed to expand the Achaemenid Empire to its greatest extent, being stopped by the Greeks at the Battle of Marathon. He reformed the army and navy, as well as commerce and coinage, built roads throughout his empire, and a canal from the Nile river to Suez. He also founded the city of Persepolis, built a palace in Susa, and commissioned the Behistun Inscription, which would become the modern key for deciphering the cuneiform script. | Things you can do
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