IRAN. Shiraz. 2017. Iranian tourists at the ruins of Persepolis, also known as ‘takhte Jamsid’. The site was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid empire and was burned down when Alexander the Great invaded Persia in 330 B.C. Nowadays the ruins are visited by school classes, and local and foreign tourists marveling at what once was a symbol of Persia as a world power. Some of its statues of the mythical Homa bird and bull headed creatures remain as testaments of Iran’s pre-Islamic empire that dominated the world.