Pasargad or Pasargadae is the name of a county in Fars province. The center of the county is the city of Sadat Shar that is known for hosting one of the wonders of Achaemenid Empire, or the remnant of city of Pasargadae with the oldest Persian Garden of Iran and the Mausoleum of Great Cyrus, the founder of Achaemenid Dynasty. People in the county are Shiites, and mostly speak Farsi with a minority that speaks other languages including Azari and Arabic.
The historic sites in the city prove that it had a long history; however, the constant name changing has made tracing its history very difficult. In the Achaemenid Tablets, the name of the city is mentioned as Kaminush, and in the history book of Ebn Al Balki it is named as Kameh. The name was later turned to Kamin that is still unofficially used to refer to the villages belonging to this area. There are also other names like Aklidak, Klidak, or Klilak that are mentioned in some history books. In Qajar and Pahlavi time, it came to be known as Sadat Abad, and after the 1979 revolution, it was named Sadat Shahr.
The archeological excavation proves that there was a royal palace and city in this area, and it was a center of Wine Making in country. There are dated cemeteries in the area, which some are part of fruit gardens, filled with the remnant of pottery and tools from ancient history. They are the best proof of the history of the area; it also shows that the ancient city was much larger than the current one.
As it was mentioned the city is known for its Achaemenid historic sites. Around 500 years before the birth of Christ, Cyrus the Great attacked the local tribes of central Asia, and died in a battle against Massagetae. He was placed in a mausoleum with stepped architecture. There are also many ancient hills that are yet to be excavated. Pieces of pottery and carved stone are easily found in the foothills here that prove the history of the mounds. Qasr ol dasht, Vakil Abad, Firouz Abad, and Ali Resideh are among these hills. There are other attractions in the area that include the Qajar caravanserai, Dokhtar castle, Sangi bridge, Pahlavi inscription, and Qavam Abad caravanserai.
