Hive account@harlotscurse, here is a new proposal for the location of Ecbatana. It was the city of Hattusa in Anatolia. According to the Book of Tobit, Haran was halfway from Nineveh to Ecbatana. Hattusa was originally the city of Tubal, but was conquered by the Cimmerians and Medes circa 690 BC.

Deioces = Tudkaliya III
Phraortes = Bartatua = Suppiluliumas I
[missing] = Tugdamme the Cimmerian = Mursilis II
Madyes = Muwatallis II
Cyaxares = Khetasar = Hattusilis III
Astyages = Tudkhaliya IV

The city of Hattusa has the multiple rings described in Herodotus, but no outer wall. It also has the postern gates, and tunnels described for Ecbatana.

Mitanni was defeated in 796 BC by Ashur Nirari III and Jeroboam II of Israel, but Deioces was deported from Mannea by Sargon II in 713 BC to the region of Carchemish. He organized the coalition of the Medes and Cimmerians who ambushed Sargon in Tabal in 705 BC. Thus began the "Median Empire".