Known collectively as the Andronovo horizon, these peoples represented one of the most expansive cultural phenomena of the ancient world, their influence reaching from the forests of Siberia to the deserts of Central Asia and the mountain valleys of the Tian Shan.

The Persian Magi are probably one of the most influential yet misunderstood priestly orders in world history. Originating as a Median tribe in the ancient Near East, the Magi evolved into a hereditary sacerdotal caste that served as the religious authorities of successive Iranian empires—Median, Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian—for over a millennium.