Chap, 29.] 
ACCOUNT or COXJFTIIIES, ETC. 
69 
west are the cities of Issatis and Calliope, already mentioned/ 
on the north-east Europus,^ on the south-east Maria ; in the 
middle there are Hecatompylos/ Arsace, and Msiaea, a fine 
district of Parthiene, in which is Alexandropolis, so called from 
its founder. 
(26.) It is requisite in this place to trace the localities of the 
Medi also, and to describe in succession the features of the coun- 
try as far as the Persian Sea, in order that the account which 
follows may be the better understood. Media^ lies crosswise to 
the west, and so presenting itself obliquely to Parthia, closes the 
entrance of both kingdoms ^ into which it is divided. It has, 
then, on the east, the Caspii and the Parthi ; on the south, 
Sittacene, Susiane, and Persis ; on the west, Adsiabene ; and 
on the north, Armenia. The Persae have always inhabited 
the shores of the Eed Sea, for which reason it has received 
the name of the Persian Gulf. This maritime region of Persis 
has the name of Ciribo on the side on which it runs up 
to that of the Medi, there is a place known by the name of 
Climax Megale,^^ where the mountains are ascended by a 
steep flight of stairs, and so afford a narrow passage which leads 
to Persepolis,^^ the former capital of the kingdom, destroyed by 
5 In c. 17 of the present Book. 
6 Not to be confounded with the place in Atropatene, mentioned in 
c. 21 of the present Book. 
It has been supposed that the modern Damgham corresponds with 
this place, hut that is too near the Portse Caspiae. It is considered most 
probable that the remains of Hecatompylos ought to be sought in the 
neighbourhood of a place now known as Jah Jirm, It is mentioned in 
c. 17 and 21 of the present Book. 
8 Media occupied the extreme west of the great table-land of the modern 
Iran. It corresponded very nearly to the modern province of Irak-Ajemi. 
^ The Upper and the Lower, as already mentioned. 
10 Hardouin suggests that this should be Syrtibolos. His reasons^ for 
so thinking will be found alluded to in a note to c. 31. See p. 80, Note 98. 
11 Or the " Great Ladder." The Baron de Bode states, in his Travels 
in Luristan and Arabistan^ that he discovered the remains of a gigantic 
causeway, in which he had no difficulty in recognizing one of the most 
ancient and most mysterious monuments of the East. This causeway, 
which at the present day bears the name of Jaddehi-Atabeg, or the "road 
of the Atabegs," was looked upon by several historians as one of the 
wonders of the world, who gave it the name of the Climax Megale or *' Great 
Ladder." At the time even of Alexander the Great the name of its con- 
structor was unknown, 
12 Which was rebuilt after it was burnt by Alexander, and in the 
