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Gilan
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Mazanderan Province

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The eastern province of Mazanderan is much larger and geographically more varied than Gilan. The climate becomes gradually drier further east, and the crops consequently change with orchards of fruit trees replacing tea plantations. A large part of the province is taken by the Alborz Range, leaving only a narrow coastal strip in the west. At its narrowest and most attractive point, roughly between Ramsar and Sisangan, the thickly forested northern slopes of the Alborz roll almost to the sea.

Sisangan Forest, Mazanderan

Sisangan Forest, Mazanderan
( Photo by Nicol Faridani )

Sang-deh, Mazanderan

Sang-deh, Mazanderan
( Photo by Nicol Faridani )

Around Babol and Sari; however, this widens to become a plain, which eventually joins the vast Turkoman Steppes in the region of Gonbad-e Kavus. The eastern province has a proud nomadic past and it has kept its old traditions alive, particularly in the breeding of horses and the manufacture of carpets.

Gonbad-e Kavus (tower of Kavus) is essentially a Turkoman town, and owes its name to its most famous building, a 51 metre (167 foot) tall Mausoleum, which is perhaps the most impressive of all funerary towers in Iran.

Gonbad-e Kavus, Mazanderan

Gonbad-e Kavus, Mazanderan
( Photo by Nicol Faridani )

Turkoman Fishermen, Mazanderan

Turkoman Fishermen, Mazanderan
( Photo by N. Kasraian )

Sari, the capital of Mazanderan province, is much less developed than Rasht. Sari has a long history and is said to have been the capital of the Sassanians (then known as Tabarestan) before the Arab conquest. Important finds in the area of Sassanian gold and silver support this theory. The main sites in Sari are the 15th century funerary towers in the town centre, near the bazaar. The first the Imamzadeh Yahya, is a somewhat austere circular building with a conical roof, a shape characteristic of the region. The second, the borj-e Soltan Zein al-Abedin, is a square construction still bearing a few traces of the original blue decorative tile-work.

From the Bay of Gorgan and Bandar-e Torkaman lies a vast fertile plain caught between the mountains in the south and the Turkoman desert to the north. Further east, begin the steppes which stretch into Central Asia, the land of the Turkomans.

Turkoman Riders

Turkoman Riders taking part in an endurance race.
( Photo by N. Kasraian )

The town of Gorgan (once known as Astarabad) has for much of its long history been the last secure outpost of Persian civilisation. Settled since ancient times, it was geographically positioned to resist the threat of raids and was an important caravan post and the main market town for the nomadic Turkomans, a meeting point of two completely opposed ways of life. Today Gorgan is a busy provincial town with a lively and colourful bazaar.

North of Gorgon, close to the Turkmenistan frontier, are the remains of an ancient wall known as Sadd-e Eskandar, or Alexander's Wall. According to popular belief, this wall was built by Alexander the Great, although it is more likely that it is of late Sassanian date and was designed to protect the Gorgan Plain from nomad raids. The remains stretch over 70 kilometres (43 miles), from Gonbad-e Kavus to the sea, but they have suffered such severe erosion that in many places there is little more than the odd mound left to see.

From Gorgan, the main road continues east into the province of Khorassan, passing first through the tobacco and cotton fields and then through the mountains and the Golestan National Park. This park was opened in 1957, and covers some 92,000 hectares (227,337 acres). It is one of the most interesting places in the country from the point of view of wildlife and plants and includes both thick forests and semi-arid steppes. There are a wide variety of animals, and it is relatively easy to see wild boar, deer, gazelles, ibex (a type of mountain goat), and birds of prey.

Waterfall, Golestan Forest

Waterfall, Golestan Forest
( Photo by Nicol Faridani )

 

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