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
Ecbatana drachm, tetradrachm, and assorted bronze denominations. The wealth and importance of the city in the Persian empire is attributed to its location on a crucial crossroads that made it a staging post on the main East-West highway. In 330 BC, Ecbatana was the site of the murder of the Macedonian general Parmenion by order of Alexander the Great. The Tell Hagmatana, also called Tepe Hegmataneh (thought to correspond to the ancient citadel of Ecbatana) has a circumference of 1.4 kilometres with an area of about 40 hectares, which corresponds to a report from Polybius, although the ancient Greek and Roman