The Mees were an ancient Iranian people who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran, roughly the areas of present day Kurdistan, Hamedan, Tehran, Lorestan, Azerbaijan, Esfahan and Zanjan. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea (Μηδία, Old Persian Māda; adjective Median, antiquated also Medean). Under Assyrian rule, the Medes were known as Mādāyu. They entered this region with the first wave of Iranian tribes, in the late second millennium BC (the Bronze Age collapse).