Atropatene, (Media) Kingdom of
Years: 323BCE - 63
Atropatene (originally known as "Atropatkan" and "Atorpatkan") is an ancient kingdom established and ruled under local ethnic Iranian dynasts first with "Darius" of Persia and later "Alexander" of Macedonia, starting in the 4th century BCE and includes the territory of modern-day Iranian Azarbaijanand Iranian Kurdistan.
Its capital is Gazaca, or Ganzak, identified as being near Leylan in the Miandoab plain.
Atropatene also is the nominal ancestor of the name Azerbaijan.
