On the west slope of the Zagros mountain range (western Iran) of the Tigris river’s drainage basin is the city of Hamadan (near the Sirwan tributary), anciently known as Hagmatana (and later by the Greeks as Ecbatana) meaning gathering place, of the Medes, so considering mata (Mada was the old persian name for the Medes) within the word Hagmatana, it’s probably for Madai, a son of Japheth. The great city was fortified by huge walls of cedar and cypress wood, surrounding the ziggurat in the center, the remnants of all that now beneath the modern city of Hamadan.
