HAMADAN, ANCIENT ECBATANA. 
101 
having been consigned to a magnificent tomb at Casvin. Various 
authors give these various suppositions ; though it appears to 
me as most probable, that the hero would be buried where his 
dreadful funeral rites were performed; and, therefore, I should 
look for his grave somewhere within the shadow of Orontes. 
Indeed, I brought away from Ecbatana several old coins of 
Alexander, of different sizes. And, it is not unlikely that some 
were struck on the spot, as part of the commemorating honours 
in these extravagant obsequies. 
The identity of this ancient city’s situation, with that of the 
present Hamadan, seems to be established beyond a doubt; the 
plain, the mountain, and the relative position of the place with 
regard to other noted cities, agreeing in every point. The site 
also of the modern town, like that of the ancient, is on a gra¬ 
dual ascent, terminating near the foot of the eastern side of the 
mountain ; but there all trace of its past appearance would cease, 
were it not for two or three considerable elevations, and over¬ 
grown irregularities on, and near them ; which may have been 
the walls of the royal fortress, with those of the palaces, temples, 
and theatres, seen no more. I passed one of these heights, 
standing to the south-west, as I entered the city, and observed 
that it bore many vestiges of having been strongly fortified. 
The sides and summit are covered with large remnants of ruined 
walls of a great thickness, and also of towers, the materials of 
which were sun-dried bricks. It has the name of the Inner 
Fortress, and certainly holds the most commanding station near 
the plain. The city stands in latitude 34° 53', and longitude 
40° E. When it lost the name of Ecbatana in that of Hamadan, 
it seems to have lost all its honours too ; for while it preserved 
the old appellation of the capital whence the great kings of the 
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VOL. II. 
