Ancient Near East Subsequently, the Medes controlled much of the ancient Near East from their base in Ecbatana (modern-day Hamadan, Iran), most notably most of what is now Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and the South Caucasus. Following the fall of the Medes, the Achaemenid Empire was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over most of the Near East and far beyond, and the second great Iranian empire (after the Median Empire). At the height of its power, encompassing approximately 7.5 million square kilometers, the Achaemenid Empire was territorially the largest empire of classical antiquity, and the first world empire. It spanned three
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