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
Samaria (ancient city) delimits the area of the city in that direction. In essence only the acropolis was excavated down to the Iron Age but it is presumed by the excavators that the city extended down over the northern and southern slopes of the hill. Samaria (ancient city) Samaria (, "Shomron"; , "Samareia"; , "as-Samira") was an ancient city in the Land of Israel. It was the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. The ruins of the city are located in the Samaria mountains of the West Bank and are under the jurisdiction of the