It is doubtful whether the Median capital was at any time surrounded with walls.

Polybius expressly declares that it was an unwalled place in his day and there is some reason to suspect that it had always been in this condition.

The Medes and Persians appear to have been in general content to establish in each town a fortified citadel or stronghold, round which the houses were clustered, without superadding the further defence of a town wall.

Ecbatana accordingly seems never to have stood a siege.

When the nation which held it was defeated in the open field, the city (unlike Babylon and Nineveh) submitted to the conqueror without a struggle.