An old cylinder discovered in a temple in Babylon (modern-day Iraq) sporting cuneiform inscriptions revealed some surprising edicts. Linked with the Persian king, Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, many believe the Cylinder lays out the world’s first declaration of universal human rights. More than two millennia before the French Revolution introduced the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Of the Citizens, an ancient Near Eastern monarch issued a charter considered the oldest known declaration of human rights. This charter is known today as the Cyrus Cylinder. The Cyrus Cylinder was discovered in the ruins of Babylon, in