538–515 BCE · Middle East · Faith
Persian policy permitted Judean exiles to return and rebuild the Temple; work associated with Sheshbazzar, Zerubbabel and Jeshua culminated in its dedication under Darius I.
Atlas dossier · Biblical & ClassicalFree device narration · synchronized English captions · transcript available
Why it matters
‘Let the house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices.’ — Ezra 6:3 (KJV)
Silent pan-and-zoom motion derivative of the Cyrus’s decree and the Second Temple reconstruction; not archival footage.
Primary Atlas editorial reconstruction for Cyrus’s decree and the Second Temple.
World History in Pictures · Public site artwork. This record does not grant third-party republication rights.
How Atlas classifies this artwork →
Supporting Atlas reconstruction within the same Cyrus’s decree and the Second Temple editorial package; not an independent archival record.
World History in Pictures · Same editorial artwork package
How Atlas classifies this artwork →
Context crop from the same Cyrus’s decree and the Second Temple reconstruction; not an independent historical record.
World History in Pictures · Same editorial artwork package
How Atlas classifies this artwork →Supplemental archival visual
Cyrus Cylinder, detail is presented as a period visual interpretation or documentary record. It does not independently establish the dossier’s chronology; use the linked item page and source trail for its provenance and reuse terms.
Open the item page and rights record ↗Cyrus Cylinder, detail — Mike Peel; CC BY-SA 4.0; via British Museum
Interpretation note
This dossier distinguishes the event’s basic chronology from later arguments about meaning, responsibility and legacy. When comparing religious, national, Indigenous or scholarly interpretations, consult the primary and institutional sources above alongside peer-reviewed historical work.
Elsewhere in the world
490–479 BCE · EuropeGreco-Persian WarsCoalitions of Greek poleis resisted two Achaemenid invasions in campaigns remembered at Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea; other Greek communities supported Persia or remained outside the alliances.
431–404 BCE · EuropePeloponnesian WarAthens, Sparta and their alliances fought across the Greek world in a prolonged conflict marked by plague, revolt, naval warfare and the Sicilian disaster; Persian support helped Sparta in the war’s closing phase.
334–323 BCE · GlobalWars of Alexander the GreatAlexander’s Macedonian army defeated Achaemenid Persia, besieged Tyre, entered Egypt and campaigned through Central Asia to the Indus; his empire fragmented into successor kingdoms after his death.