The Achaemenid Empire (/ækəˈmɛnɪˌdi/; Old Persian: Parsā, name of ruling dynasty: Haxāmanišiya) (c. 550–330 BCE), sometimes known as First Persian Empire, was an Iranian empire in Southwest Asia, founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation. It expanded to eventually rule over significant portions of the ancient world which at around 500 BCE stretched from the Indus Valley in the east, to Thrace and Macedon on the northeastern border of Greece making it the biggest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenid Empire would eventually control Egypt as well. It was ruled by a series of monarchs who unified its disparate tribes and nationalities by constructing a complex network of roads.

Calling themselves the Parsa after their original Aryan tribal name Parsua, Persians settled in a land which they named Parsua, bounded on the west by the Tigris River and on the south by the Persian Gulf. This became their heartland for the duration of the Achaemenid Empire. It was from this region that eventually Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II of Persia) would advance to defeat the Median, the Lydian, and the Babylonian Empires, opening the way for subsequent conquests into Egypt and Asia minor.

Prince Reza Pahlavi (Persian: رضا پهلوی‎, born 31 October 1960) is the last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran and current head of the House of Pahlavi. He is the older son of the late Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his Shahbanou Farah Pahlavi. In 1979, Reza Pahlavi left Iran at the time of the Iranian Revolution.

Reza Pahlavi was born in Tehran, Iran, as eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, and Empress Farah Pahlavi. Reza Pahlavi's siblings include his sister Princess Farahnaz Pahlavi (12 March 1963), brother Prince Ali-Reza Pahlavi (28 April 1966 – 4 January 2011), and sister Princess Leila Pahlavi (27 March 1970 – 10 June 2001), as well as a half-sister, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi (27 October 1941).

He left Iran at the age of 17 for air force training. He spent a year at Williams College, but was forced to leave because of the turmoil in Iran. With the monarchy overthrown and an Islamic Republic established, Reza Pahlavi did not return to Iran. He received a BSc degree by correspondence in political science from the University of Southern California, because Williams did not offer that option. A jet fighter pilot, Reza Pahlavi completed the United States Air Force Training Program at the former Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas. In 1980, at the start of the Iran–Iraq War, Pahlavi, a highly-trained fighter pilot, wrote to General Valiollah Fallahi, Chief Commander of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic, offering to fight in the air force for Iran in the war. The offer was rebuffed.