Ecbatana
Hamadan, Iran
The ruins of the ancient city of Ecbatana, once a capital city of the Median and Achaeminid Empires, are located on the northeastern side of Mount Alvand, in the present-day city of Hamadan, about 1 km northeast of Imam Khomeini Square. Several ancient buildings were unearthed during the construction of a major roadway, the Khiyaban-i Ekbatan, in the 1950s. Eight miles southwest of Ecbatana, on Mount Alvand, are two cuneiform inscriptions known as the Ganj-Nameh ("Treasury Book"), one each of Darius I and Xerxes I. 


Sources:

“Ecbatana.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ecbatana [Accessed July 9, 2019].

Lockhart, Laurence. Persian Cities. London: Luzac, 1960.
Location
Hamadan, Iran
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Associated Names
Events
chosen as Median capital in late 8th century BCE
captured by Cyrus II and made Achaemenid summer residence in 550/549 BCE
Style Periods
Variant Names
Ikbatan
Ekbatan