THE ANCIENT ECBATANA. 
"267 
and Rennel that Hamadan occupies the site of the ancient Ecbatana; 
and that the mountain of Alwend is the Orontes of the ancient geography. 
Such observations as we were enabled to make on the spot, have tended 
to confirm their decision. The situation of Hamadan, so much unlike 
that of other Persian cities, would of itself be sufficient to establish its 
claim to a remote origin, considering the propensity of the ancients to 
build their cities on elevated positions. Ispahan, Shiraz, Teheran, 
Tabriz, Khoi, are all built upon plains; but Hamadan occupies a great 
diversity of surface, and like Rome and Constantinople, can enumerate 
the hills over which it is spread Its locality agrees with that of Ecba¬ 
tana, built on the declivity of Orontes, according to Polybiusp, and is 
also conformable to Herodotus, who, in describing its walls rising in 
circles one above the other, says, this mode of building was favoured by 
the situation of the place, which was on a hilly ground, - KoXuvog £ 01 ^. ijl 
Uassiette du lieu, qui seleve en colline of Larcher, better expresses 
the nature of the ground than a gently rising ground, which Beloe has 
adopted in his translation. 
At about seven miles from our camp, carved on the surface of the 
rock, on a steep declivity of the mountain of Alwend, are to be seen 
two tablets, each of which is divided into three longitudinal compart¬ 
ments, inscribed with the arrow-headed character of Persepolis. These 
inscriptions are called by the Persians, Genj nameli, or tales of a trea¬ 
sure. Close to the foot of the rock runs a stream that issues from the 
mountain, and higher up, above the two tablets, is to be traced the com¬ 
mencement of others. 
Another monument of positive antiquity, we discovered casually in 
exploring the northern skirts of the city. It consists of the base of a 
small column, of the identical order of the larger bases of the columns 
at Persepolis, and appears to be of the same sort of stone. This led to 
* Anc. Geo. Media v. Geo. Sys. Herod, p. 272. 
f Lib. X. 24. t Clio, 98. 
mm2 
