Ekbatan Battery football clubs. Ekbatan and Dastgerdi stadiums hosted the 2012 AFC U-16 Championship. Ekbatan Ekbatan Town ( ) is a planned town in western Tehran, Iran. It is located approximately five kilometers west of central Tehran. The town is named after Ecbatana, the capital city of the ancient Median Empire around 700 BC. It was the first capital of ancient Iranians to be established in Western Asia, and is the ancestor of the modern city of Hamedan. The word "Ekbātān" is a variant of "Ecbatana" ( ) which derives from Old Persian "Haŋgmetana", meaning "place of gathering". The construction of
Deioces the Ecbatana Hill, was the true place of the ancient city of Ecbatana. Some historians, including Henry Rawlinson, believe that the Ecbatana mentioned in Herodotus's writings is not the current Hamadan; and the olden Median capital should be searched in Takht-e Soleymān and in the vicinity of Lake Urmia to the south east. But some researchers, like Jacques de Morgan, believe that Herodotus's Ecbatana is the same Hamadan today; and the places of the seven castles of Fort Ecbatana could be identified by the projections on the land and hills. Some Iranologists believe Deioces to be the Hushang in Shahnameh