Editing Ecbatana (section)

==== Herodotus's description ====
[[File:Khorsabad_Salle_II_bas_relief_22_attaque_d'une_cité_mède.jpg|right|thumb|[[Assyria|Assyrian-era]] relief of a Median city built with walls forming concentric circles on a hill, similarly to how Greek authors later described Ecbatana.]]
The Greeks thought Ecbatana to be the capital of the [[Medes|Median 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 colors.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bienkowski |first1=Piotr |title=Dictionary of the Ancient Near East |last2=Millard |first2=Alan |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8122-2115-2 |location=Philadelphia, PA |page=99 |language=en}}</ref> There are some indications that the walls of this complex might be an ancient [[ziggurat]], which was a type of temple tower with multiple stories that were common in the [[ancient Near East]].<ref name="Lendering 1996">{{Cite web |last=Lendering |first=Jona |date=1996 |title=Ecbatana (Hamadan) |url=https://www.livius.org/articles/place/ecbatana-hamadan/}}</ref>

In the 5th century BC, [[Herodotus]] wrote of Ecbatana:<blockquote>"The Medes built the city now called Ecbatana, the walls of which are of great size and strength, rising in circles one within the other. The plan of the place is, that each of the walls should out-top the one beyond it by the battlements. The nature of the ground, which is a gentle hill, favors this arrangements in some degree but it is mainly effected by art. The number of the circles is seven, the royal palace and the treasuries standing within the last. The circuit of the outer wall is very nearly the same with that of [[Athens]]. On this wall the battlements are white, of the next black, of the third scarlet, of the fourth blue, the fifth orange; all these colors with paint. The last two have their battlements coated respectively with silver and gold. All these fortifications [[Deioces]] had caused to be raised for himself and his own palace."</blockquote>
[[File:Raguel's Reception of Tobias at Ecbatana MET DP801095.jpg|thumb|Raquel's reception of Tobias at Ecbatana]]
Herodotus's description is corroborated in part by stone reliefs from the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]], depicting Median citadels ringed by concentric walls. Other sources attest to the historical importance of Ecbatana based on the terms used by ancient authors to describe it such as ''Caput Mediae'' (capital of Media), the Royal Seat, and the Great City.<ref name=":02" /> It is said that Alexander the Great deposited the treasures he took from [[Persepolis]] and [[Pasargadae]] and that one of the last acts of his life was to visit the city.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Balfour |first=Edward |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283118 |title=The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia |publisher=Bernard Quartitch |year=1885 |location=London |page=1027}}</ref>

The citadel of Ecbatana is also mentioned in the [[Bible]] in [[Ezra 6]]:2, in the time of [[Darius I]], as part of the national archives.