Ekbatan 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 Ekbatan was started in 1975, for the purpose of mass housing. It was
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