Hegmataneh (Ecbatana)

Hamedan is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and Hegmataneh hill is where it began. Greek writers knew the city as Ecbatana, capital of the Medes. Herodotus credits its founding to the Median king Deioces and describes a palace ringed by seven concentric walls, each painted a different colour, the innermost two plated in silver and gold.

After Cyrus the Great took the city in the 6th century BC, Ecbatana became a summer capital of the Achaemenid kings, a royal treasury, and later an important city of the Parthians. Its fame lasted long after the ancient city disappeared beneath the modern one.

Systematic excavation of the hill began in the 1980s and uncovered a large city laid out on a grid, with streets, drainage channels and blocks of mud-brick buildings. Much of what is visible today dates to the later, Parthian phases of the city; parts of the trenches are protected under large modern roofs. Walkways let visitors look down into the excavated quarters.

The site museum displays finds from the hill and the wider region — pottery, column bases, coins, gold ornaments and other objects — and helps make sense of the ruins. On the edge of the hill stands a small brick Armenian church. From the top there are wide views across the city to the snowy ridge of Mount Alvand.