Researchers claim to have located the site of the Battle of Qadisiyyah

This is where the Arabs defeated the Sassanids, the last of the great Persian empires. (Let's be honest with ourselves. The Safavids were no more than a regional power.)

I've seen some of these photos and they really are very useful. An enormous amount of stuff has been paved over or plowed over since they were taken. Some go back as far as the 1960s. You'd be surprised how good the cameras already were back then. IIRC you can get them for free off the USGS website.