Ecbatana Ecbatana Ecbatana (; "Hagmatāna" or "Haŋmatāna", literally "the place of gathering", , in Aeschylus and Herodotus, Akkadian: "a-gam-ta-nu" in the Nabonidus Chronicle) was an ancient city in Media in western Iran. It is believed that Ecbatana is in Hagmatana Hill (Tappe-ye Hagmatāna), an archaeological mound in Hamedan. According to Herodotus, Ecbatana was chosen as the Medes' capital in the late 8th century BC by Deioces. Under the Achaemenid Persian kings, Ecbatana, situated at the foot of Mount Alvand, became a summer residence. Later, it became the capital of the Parthian kings, at which time it became their main mint, producing
Ecbatana the tell in support of arcaheology, though actual excavation did not begin until 1983. By 2007, 12 seasons of excavation had occurred. The work on the tell is ongoing. The Greeks thought Ecbatana to be the capital of the Medes empire and credited its foundation to Deioces (the "Daiukku" of the cuneiform inscriptions). It is alleged that he surrounded his palace in Ecbatana with seven concentric walls of different colours. In the 5th century BC, Herodotus wrote of Ecbatana: "The Medes built the city now called Ecbatana, the walls of which are of great size and strength, rising in circles