State · 678 – 550 BCE

Median kingdom

A state of 678 – 550 BCE — 128 years in the Middle East and North Africa. It was followed by Achaemenid Empire. The atlas records 8 things within it — wars and battles 1 · unrest and atrocity 1 · people 6. Its line of rulers holds 7 people, 4 with dated terms.

Wikidata's English label: Median Kingdom.

For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.

Stood: 128 years; 678 BCE – 550 BCE
Rulers: 7; the King of Media
Most ground: 2.24 million km²; in 600 BCE
Within it: 8; recorded rows

Map: Median kingdom in 600 BCE, its borders in gold among its neighbours — Median kingdom in 600 BCE, when it held the most ground the borders dataset draws for it: 2.24 million km². Its neighbours wear their tints, as on the atlas's own map. Borders from Cliopatria (CC BY 4.0), coast and rivers from Natural Earth, cities from Reba, Reitsma & Seto 2016 (CC BY 4.0), each city under the name it bore that year.

Where it sits in time

Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold, what it replaced or followed and what replaced or followed it in grey.

Before and after

The states the record files it as replacing or following, and those that replaced or followed it - Wikidata's own statements, each read from this state's side.

After it

Achaemenid Empire · followed by · 550 – 330 BCE

Rulers

The line of King of Media.

deposed, abdicated, exiled or removeddied in officeending not on record

Ruler	Reign	Length	How it ended · source	To the ruler before
Deioces	710 BCE – 665 BCE	45 years	the term ends after the recorded deathread off the dates alone
Phraortes	665 BCE – 633 BCE	32 years	died in office, manner not recordedread off the dates alone	child
Cyaxares	625 BCE – 585 BCE	40 years	died in office, manner not recordedread off the dates alone	child
Astyages	585 BCE – 553 BCE	32 years	deposed, the article saysread from the ruler's own article	child

7 rulers, 4 with terms dated as terms, covering 710 BCE – 553 BCE. Median reign 36 years. 0 of 3 handovers irregular - a killing, a deposition, a rival claimant, a rising or a coup beside it. A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.

Ground held, by year

km² inside its borders as the borders dataset draws them, measured on an equal-area grid; a step series, held between the years the dataset maps.

2.06 million km² in 608 BCE, 2.24 million km² in 558 BCE; at its largest 2.24 million km² in 598 BCE. Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0.

What happened within it, by century

Every row the atlas hosts under this state, by the century it began in: wars and battles in red, risings, regime changes and massacres beside them, everything else in grey. A tall bar is a century the record is full for, which is partly a fact about Wikipedia.

600 BCE – 501 BCE5 rows · 1 wars and battles · 1 risings, regime changes and massacres

Cyrus the Great · ruler · 600 – 530 BCE
Mandane of Media · ruler · 591 – 559 BCE
Medo-Persian conflict · unrest · 553 – 550 BCE
Battle of the Persian Border · battle · 551 BCE
Cyaxares II · ruler · 551 – 531 BCE

Among all states

Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.

How long it stood128 years
stood longer than 52% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.
The most ground it held2,244,400 km²
held more ground at its peak than 92% of 1,465 states with a border in Cliopatria.
Wars recorded per centurynone
had more wars on record per century than 44% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.
How long a reign lasted, at the median40 years
had longer reigns, at the median, than 91% of 967 states whose dated line can carry a median.
Rulers on record7
has more rulers on record than 73% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.

What led to it, and what came of it

The investigation's own picture: 0 causes the record names and 2 results, the strongest six of each at their own years, joined to the state by the kind of claim - a recorded statement solid, the article's sentence dashed, a theory dash-dot.

in the articlelinked

Open the investigation: every row with its evidence, the conditions at the time, the theories condition by condition, and the succession analysed.

Theories that apply to its ending

Of 3 theories of why states fall, 1 has every condition present at this ending; each is applied by its own logic, condition by condition, and whether its authors named this case is a footnote.

Dynastic cycle and the decay of group feeling
Ibn Khaldun 1377 · Turchin & Nefedov 2009
Applies by its own logic: the condition it names held here, and this is the kind of outcome it predicts — adverse regime change or the state's ending.
- the state 90 to 160 years old — ageBand 128

Open in the atlas

On the timeline, 691 BCE – 537 BCE, with everything that stood beside it.
On the map in 600 BCE, live: scrub the year and watch its borders move.
Investigate it: what led to it, what came of it, and its succession analysed.

Wikidata Q20437507 (CC0) · borders Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0 · coast and rivers Natural Earth · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.