Ecbatana

Hamadan, Iran

The ruins of the ancient city of Ecbatana, once a capital city of the Median and Achaeminid Empires, are located on the northeastern side of Mount Alvand, in the present-day city of Hamadan, about 1 km northeast of Imam Khomeini Square. Several ancient buildings were unearthed during the construction of a major roadway, the Khiyaban-i Ekbatan, in the 1950s. Eight miles southwest of Ecbatana, on Mount Alvand, are two cuneiform inscriptions known as the Ganj-Nameh ("Treasury Book"), one each of Darius I and Xerxes I.