Hyrcania

Hyrcania
Gurgān
Province of the Median, Achaemenid, Seleucid, Arsacid, and Sasanian Empire
548 BC–651 AD

Achaemenid Empire, with Province of Hyrcania
CapitalZadracarta
(548 BC–225 AD)
Gurgān
(225–651 AD)
Historical eraAntiquity
• Established
548 BC
• Fall of the Sasanian Empire
651 AD
Today part of

Hyrcania (/hərˈkniə/) (Greek: Ὑρκανία Hyrkanía,[1] Old Persian: 𐎺𐎼𐎣𐎠𐎴 Varkâna,[2] Middle Persian: 𐭢𐭥𐭫𐭢𐭠𐭭 Gurgān, Akkadian: Urqananu)[2] is a historical region composed of the land south-east of the Caspian Sea in modern-day Iran and Turkmenistan, bound in the south by the Alborz mountain range and the Kopet Dag in the east.[3]

The region served as a satrapy (province) of the Median Empire, a sub-province of the Achaemenid Empire, and a province within its successors, the Seleucid, Arsacid and Sasanian empires. Hyrcania bordered Parthia to the east (later known as Abarshahr), Dihistan to the north, Media to the south and Mardia to the west.

  1. ^ Woodhouse (1910), p. 1013
  2. ^ a b Lendering (1996)
  3. ^ Sherwin-White & Kuhrt (1993), p. 81