Will Miss #26: Pasargadae (Cyrus the Great’s Tomb) – a UNESCO Heritage Site

Cyrus the Great. Kourosh-e-Kabir (in Persian). King of Persia, King of Kings. The most important, most noble, most benevolent Iranian to ever live. It was a true honor getting the chance to visit his final resting place in Shiraz. Every Iranian needs to go pay their respects to him at least once in their lives, because this human being gave Iran and people in general - not just Iranians - so much. If I could meet one person - and only one person - from history, I wouldn't chose Alexander or Jefferson or Lincoln or Sophocles or Hafez or Queen Elizabeth... etc... I would chose Cyrus.

Cyrus, the man who wrote the first charter of human rights (The Cyrus Cylinder, which I had the chance to see when it toured in the States). Cyrus, the man who freed the Jews from Babylon. Cyrus, the man the Jews called "The Anointed One" and "The Messiah" (http://www.bible-prophecy.net/articles/a2pws.htm). Cyrus, the man who did not believe in slavery and who paid his workers (http://www.freerepublic.com/~cyrusthegreat/). Cyrus, the man who let the different people of his empire keep their own langauges, religions, and lifestyles (http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/ca/books/bkf3/writing/02_empires.pdf). Cyrus, one of the few people in history who deserves the title "the Great" (37 second mark in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQcEmiGCaCo).

You can read more about Pasargadae here (it was made a UNESCO Heritage Site in 2004):
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1106

"O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus who won the Persians their empire. Do not therefore begrudge me this bit of earth that covers my bones." - Epitaph of Cyrus, as quoted in Life of Alexander, in Plutarch: The Age of Alexander, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert (1973), p.326. (From Cyrus the Great - Wikiquote). 

A former teacher of mine recently said, during a discussion which had me stating that Cyrus was truly honorable and respectable, that she couldn't find the "yeah but" and read "as one awesome and enlightened guy."

I said this at your grave too... thank you, Cyrus. We Iranians owe you one, we really do.

I will miss the final resting place of my hero.