The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 3: Media: The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.Rawlinson, George
History
The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 3: Media: The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.
The name of Adrapan occurs only in Isidore, who places it between
Bagistan and Ecbatana, at the distance of twelve schoeni--36 Roman or 34
British miles from the latter. It was, he says, the site of an ancient
palace belonging to Ecbatana, which Tigranes the Armenian had destroyed.
The name and situation sufficiently identify Adrapan with the modern
village of Arteman, which lies on the southern face of Elwend near
its base, and is well adapted for a royal residence. Here, during the
severest winter, when Hamadan and the surrounding country are buried in
snow, a warm and sunny climate is to be found; whilst in the summer
a thousand rills descending from Elwend diffuse around fertility
and fragrance. Groves of trees grow up in rich luxuriance from the
well-irrigated soil, whose thick foliage affords a welcome shelter from
the heat of the noonday sun. The climate, the gardens, and the manifold
blessings of the place are proverbial throughout Persia; and naturally
caused the choice of the site for a retired palace, to which the court
of Ecbatana might adjourn when either the summer heat and dust or the
winter cold made residence in the capital irksome.
In the neighborhood of Adrapan, on the road leading to Bagistan, stood
Concobar, which is undoubtedly the modern Kungawar, and perhaps the
Chavon of Diodorus. Here, according to the Sicilian historian, Semiramis
built a palace and laid out a paradise; and here, in the time of
Isidore, was a famous temple of Artemis. Colossal ruins crown the summit
of the acclivity on which the town of Kungawar stands, which may be the
remains of this latter building; but no trace has been found that can be
regarded as either Median or Assyrian.
The Median town of Aspadan, which is mentioned by no writer but Ptolemy,
would scarcely deserve notice here, if it were not for its modern
celebrity. Aspadan, corrupted into Isfahan, became the capital of
Persia, under the Sen kings, who rendered it one of the most magnificent
cities of Asia. It is uncertain whether it existed at all in the time
of the great Median empire. If so, it was, at best, an outlying town of
little consequence on the extreme southern confines of the territory,
where it abutted upon Persia proper. The district wherein it lay was
inhabited by the Median tribe of the Parastaceni.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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