Qumis, Iran

Šahr-e Qumis
شهر قومس
	Shown within Iran
Alternative name	Saddarvazeh; Hecatompylos
Location	Semnan Province,Iran
Region	Qumisregion
Coordinates	35°57′03.8″N54°06′46.10″E/ 35.951056°N 54.1128056°E
Type	Settlement
History
Cultures	Parthian, Persian
Site notes
Condition	In ruins

Qumis(Persian:قومس;Middle Persian𐭪𐭥𐭬𐭩𐭮 Kōmis), also known asHecatompylos(Ancient Greek:Ἑκατόμπυλος,inPersian:صددروازه,Saddarvazeh) was an ancient city which was the capital of theArsacid dynastyby 200 BCE. TheGreeknameHekatompylosmeans "one hundred gates" and the Persian term has the same meaning. The title was commonly used for cities which had more than the traditional four gates. It may be understood better as the "Many Gated". Most scholars locate it at Sahr -e Qumis, in theQumis regionin westKhurasan,Iran.^[1]

Alexander the Greatstopped here in the summer of 330 BCE and it became part of theSeleucid Empireafter his death. TheParnitribe took the city around 237 BCE and made it one of the first capitals of theirParthian Empire.It was mentioned as the royal city of the Parthians by a number of classical writers includingStrabo,Pliny,andPtolemy,although the Parthians seemed to have used a number of cities as their "capital" at different periods.

Qumis was destroyedby an earthquake in 856 AD,and it was probably abandoned afterwards. The site of this ancient city is now calledŠahr-e Qumis(Persian:شهر قومس), betweenSemnanandDamqanin theSemnan Province.

In 2011 plans for an "International Project of Tourism & Recreational City" were published, using the name ofHecatompylos.The project envisions using an area of 250 hectares (620 acres) close to the city ofDamghan,which would place the resort at about 30 km (19 mi) northeast of the historic site.^[2]

Citations

^Cohen, Getzel M. (2013).The Hellenistic Settlements in the East from Armenia and Mesopotamia to Bactria and India.University of California Press. p. 211.ISBN 978-0-520-95356-7.
^"Hecatompilos/Intro".2011-02-08. Archived fromthe originalon 2011-02-08.Retrieved2020-07-23.

References

De Quincey, Thomas (1821).Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.Penguin Books. 1979.
Frye, Richard N. (1962).The Heritage of Persia.Toronto. Mentor Books. 1966.
Goodarzi, P., Dehpahlavan, M., Sołtysiak, A. (2018). "Human remains from Shahr-i Qumis, Iran, 1967-1978",Bioarchaeology of the Near East12:89-94.
Hansman, J. (1968). "The Problems of Qūmis".Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society(1968), pp. 111–139.
Hansman, John and Stronach, David (1974). "Excavations at Shahr-i Qūmis, 1971".Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society(1974), pp. 8–22.
Hirth, Friedrich (1875).China and the Roman Orient.Shanghai and Hong Kong. Unchanged reprint. Chicago, Ares Publishers, 1975.
Tarn, William Woodthorpe (1984).The Greeks in Bactria and India.First published in 1938; 2nd Updated Edition, 1951. 3rd Edition, updated with a Preface and a new bibliography by Frank Lee Holt. Ares Publishers, Inc., Chicago. 1984.

External links

Magiran,a magazine namedQumis(in Persian)
Livius.org,a brief history plus photos

[1] Cohen, Getzel M. (2013).The Hellenistic Settlements in the East from Armenia and Mesopotamia to Bactria and India.University of California Press. p. 211.ISBN 978-0-520-95356-7.

[2] "Hecatompilos/Intro".2011-02-08. Archived fromthe originalon 2011-02-08.Retrieved2020-07-23.

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