Medes Islands

The Illes Medes (Spanish: Islas Medas) is a small and craggy group of seven islets in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the Medes Archipelago belongs to the Baix Empordà comarca, Catalonia, Spain.

The islands are located close to the shore, east of the coastal town of L'Estartit.

Islands

History

In the 15th century the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem built a fortress on Meda Gran. They eventually left and pirate attacks in the 16th century damaged the fortress. The fortress became a prison during the 18th century and at the time of the Napoleonic Wars was again fortified.

Medes

The Medes (/miːdz/, Old Persian Māda-, Ancient Greek: Μῆδοι, Hebrew: מָדַי) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in an area known as Media (Northwestern Iran) and who spoke the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of migrating Iranic Aryan tribes into Ancient Iran from the late 2nd millennium BCE (circa 1000 BC) (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE (circa 900 BC).

This period of migration coincided with a power vacuum in the Near East, with the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC) which had dominated northwestern Iran and eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus going into a comparative decline, allowing new peoples to pass through and settle. In addition, Elam, the dominant power in Ancient Iran was suffering a period of severe weakness, as was Babylonia to the west.

From the 10th to late 7th centuries BCE, the western parts of Media fell under the domination of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire based in northern Mesopotamia, but which stretched from Cyprus to Ancient Iran, and from the Caucasus to Egypt and Arabia. Assyrian kings such as Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal and Ashur-etil-ilani imposed Vassal Treaties upon the Median rulers, and also protected them from predatory raids by marauding Scythian and Cimmerian hordes.

Medes (disambiguation)

Medes can refer to the Medes, an ancient Iranian people. It can also refer to:

People

Places

Other

See also

Medgyesegyháza

Medgyesegyháza (Slovak: Medeš) is a town in Békés County, in the Southern Great Plain region of south-east Hungary.

Geography

It covers an area of 64.32 km² and has a population of 3891 people (2008).

Sister cities

Medgyesegyháza is twinned with:

Kolárovo, Slovakia

See also

Coordinates: 46°30′N 21°02′E / 46.50°N 21.03°E / 46.50; 21.03

Dive: The Medes Islands Secret

Dive: the Medes Islands Secret is a realistic fiction video game developed by Cosmonaut Games and Over the Top Games. It was first released in the United States on July 26, 2010 and on July 30, 2010 it was released in Europe. It is on Wiiware for 1000 Wii points. The game takes place in the Medes Islands area.

References