As Alexander visited these pastures on his way from Susa to Ecbatana, they must necessarily have lain to the south of the latter city.

Most probably they are to be identified with the modern plains of Kbawah and Alishtar, between Behistun and Khorramabad, which are even now considered to afford the best summer pasturage in Persia.
It is uncertain whether any of these divisions were known in the time of the great Median Empire.

They are not constituted in any case by marked natural lines or features.

On the whole it is perhaps most probable that the main division--that into Media Magna and Media Atropatene--was ancient, Astro-patene being the old home of the Medes, and Media Magna a later conquest; but the early political geography of the country is too obscure to justify us in laying down even this as certain.

The minor political divisions are still less distinguishable in the darkness of those ancient times.
From the consideration of the districts which composed the Median territory, we may pass to that of their principal cities, some of which deservedly obtained a very great celebrity.