Modern scholars question whether a Median empire even existed. It is argued that even if it existed, it must have been just a "political alliance" among highland neighbors of the Assyrians. The alliance might include Armenia in southeastern Anatolia, Sagartians in modern northern Iraq, and the actual Medians in the area between what is today Hamadan-Kirmanshah in cental Zagros. Neither cuneiform sources, archaeological evidence, or biblical accounts, support Herodotus, who claimed there really was a Median empire.