apan, 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.

Upon the whole it must be allowed that the towns of Media were few
and of no great account. The Medes did not love to congregate in large
cities, but preferred to scatter themselves in villages over their
broad and varied territory. The protection of walls, necessary for
the inhabitants of the low Mesopotamian regions, was not required by a
people whose country was full of natural fastnesses to which they could
readily remove on the approach of danger. Excepting the capital and
the two important cities of Gazaca and Rhages, the Median towns were
insignificant. Even those cities themselves were probably of moderate
dimensions, and had little of the architectural splendor which gives
so peculiar an interest to the towns of Mesopotamia. Their principal
buildings were in a frail and perishable material, unsuited to bear the
ravages of time; they have consequently altogether disappeared, and in
the whole of Media modern researches have failed to bring to light a
single edifice which can be assigned with any show of probability to the
period of the Empire.

The plan adopted in former portions of this work makes it necessary,
before concluding this chapter, to glance briefly at the character of
the various countries and districts by which Media was bordered--the
Caspian district upon the north, Armenia upon the north-west, the