Darreh Shahr Ancient City Darreh Shahr Ancient City Darreh Shahr Ancient City is the name of a ruined area next to the existing city of Darreh Shahr in southwest Iran, in Ilam Province. The ruins belong to an ancient city of the late Sassanid era (224 – 651 AD) and is believed to be built on remnants of the Elamite capital, Madakto. Historic texts and also recent findings reveal the fact that the city included about 5,000 houses with some modern aspects like an ego system. The city was destroyed and deserted after a huge earthquake around 950 AD. In ancient times, Elamites governed
Dvin (ancient city) produced an abundance of materials, which have shed light into the Armenian culture of the 5th to the 13th centuries. Ancient Armenian literary sources almost always give the name of the ancient city of Dvin as "Dwin" or "Duin". Later authors favored the Dvin appellation, which is the most common form given in scholarly literature. The word is of Middle Iranian origin, and means hill. The ancient city of Dvin was built by Khosrov III Kotak in 335 on a site of an ancient settlement and fortress from the 3rd millennium BC. Since then, the city had been used as