 | Last year Iraqi archaeologists found 66 gold coins in the town of Aziziyah, which lies 70 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of Baghdad in Wasit province. The coins date back to the Sassanid era, a Persian dynasty that ruled Iraq from the third century until the coming of the Arabs in the seventh century, making them at least 1,400 years old. The coins bore drawings of a king or god and depicted flames. |  |
 | The Sassanid era that extended from 225 BC to 640 AD represented a territory that encompassed all of what is now Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Afghanistan, eastern parts of Turkey, and parts of Syria, Pakistan, Caucasia, Central Asia and Arabia. The Sassanids called their empire Eranshahr "Empire of the Aryans (Persians)".  |  |
 | The Sasanian Empire is considered to have been one of Iran's most important and influential historical periods, and constituted the last great Iranian empire before the Muslim conquest and the adoption of Islam. In many ways, the Sassanid period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. |
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