Pasargadae

The first dynastic capital of the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great around 546 BCE. Pasargadae's garden layout — a walled enclosure divided into four quadrants by water channels — is the earliest known example of the Persian chahar-bagh design that would shape garden architecture from the Taj Mahal to the Alhambra. The site includes the audience hall with its innovative use of black and white limestone columns, the gatehouse with its famous winged figure relief, and the Tomb of Cyrus — a monument so revered that Alexander the Great ordered its restoration after finding it vandalized. UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004.