Editing Ecbatana (section)

=== Median kingdom (678–550 BC) ===
According to [[Herodotus]], Ecbatana was chosen as the [[Medes]]' capital in 678 BC by [[Deioces]], the first ruler of the Medes. Herodotus said that it had seven walls.{{sfn|Brown|1997|pp=80–84}} Deioces's intention was to build a palace worthy of the dignity of a king.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lendering |first=Jona |date=1996 |title=Ecbatana (Hamadan) |url=https://www.livius.org/articles/place/ecbatana-hamadan/ |url-status=}}</ref> After choosing Ecbatana as his capital, Deioces decided to build a huge and strong palace in the form of seven nested castles. Herodotus says that each of them was in the color of a planet.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-06-05 |title=Seven Colored Walls of Ecbatana |url=https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/seven-colored-walls-of-ecbatana.22841/ |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=CivFanatics Forums |language=en-US}}</ref> The royal palace and the treasury were located inside the seventh castle. The outer perimeter of the castle wall was almost the size of the city wall of Athens.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Cantos Project - Herodotus: Deioces and Ecbatana |url=https://ezrapoundcantos.org/index.php/a-draft-of-xvi-cantos-overview/canto-iv/iv-sources/141-ecbatana |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=ezrapoundcantos.org}}</ref> 
[[File:Reza Abbasi Museum (15).jpg|thumb|Golden [[rhyton]] of ram's head, discovered in Ecbatana, kept at the [[Reza Abbasi Museum]]]]
The royal palace, which was built in the last inner fort, had hundreds of rooms and people also built their houses outside of these forts, next to the palace.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ecbatana (Hamadan) - Livius |url=https://www.livius.org/articles/place/ecbatana-hamadan/ |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=www.livius.org}}</ref> Some archaeologists have also attributed its construction to [[Phraortes]], the second king of the Medes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Iran Chamber Society: Ecbatana |url=https://www.iranchamber.com/geography/articles/ecbatana.php |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=www.iranchamber.com}}</ref> Other old legends attribute the origin of Ecbatana to the legendary [[Semiramis]] or [[Jamshid]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ancient Ecbatana [Biblical Achmetha] (Modern Hamadan) in Iran |url=https://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Ecbatana_Achmetha_Hamadan.html |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=ancientneareast.tripod.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Hamadan, IRAN's ancient Capital city of Ecbatana - Avicenna, Ibn Sina Persia's Great Mathematician, Philosopher, Physician and Scientist, Hamadan - IRAN - Ecbatana - Persian Capital |url=http://www.farsinet.com/hamadan/ |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=www.farsinet.com}}</ref> Ecbatana has also been mentioned by other Greek historians such as [[Polybius]], [[Ctesias]], [[Justin (historian)|Justin]], and [[Xenophon]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rawlinson |first=H. C. |date=1840 |title=Memoir on the Site of the Atropatenian Ecbatana |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1797839 |journal=The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London |volume=10 |pages=65–158 |doi=10.2307/1797839 |jstor=1797839 |issn=0266-6235}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tuplin |first=Christopher |title=Xenophon and Achaemenid courts: a survey of evidence |url=https://www.academia.edu/4230957 |journal=B.Jacobs & R.Rollinger (Edd.), der Achämenidenhof (Wiesbaden 2010), 189-230.}}</ref> The [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Assyrians]] do not seem to mention Ecbatana, and it is likely they never penetrated east of the [[Alvand]] despite two centuries of involvement in Median areas of the central [[Zagros Mountains|Zagros]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=Stuart C. |date=1986 |title=Media and Secondary State Formation in the Neo-Assyrian Zagros: An Anthropological Approach to an Assyriological Problem |journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=107–119 |doi=10.2307/1359955 |jstor=1359955 |s2cid=156425357 }}</ref>