Northeastern Iran

Introducing Northeastern Iran

Sandwiched between the vast desert emptiness of the Dasht-e Kavir and the steppes of Central Asia, northeastern Iran has a spine of mountains that become more lushly forested as you head west. East of Minudasht the wilderness has been declared the Golestan (Paradise) National Park. Above the overdeveloped Caspian coast rise more forests and the grand Alborz Mountains. A trio of beautiful but busy roads take you across that dramatic range but there are lesser-known alternatives that get you into more remote, less spoilt zones around Alasht and Baladeh. Historically, the area developed as Khorasan (Where the [Iranian] Sun Rises) and Tabarestan/Mazandaran (the southeastern Caspian littoral). Millennia of culture reached a zenith here around 1000 years ago, producing many of the era’s great scientists and poet-philosophers. But the 13th- and 14th-century ravages of the Mongols and then Tamerlane were so complete that Tabarestan’s settled civilisation was virtually wiped out. Even now the sites of several once-prosperous cities are mere undulations in the steppe. A few marvellously over engineered towers, most astonishingly at Radkan and Gonbad-e Kavus, are the last witnesses of former glories.

The 16th-century Safavid regime’s move towards formal state Shiism was a major factor in the growth of Mashhad from a shrine-village to the region’s foremost city. Mashhad’s extraordinarily grand Haram-e Razavi complex surrounding the tomb of Imam Reza remains Iran’s holiest site and draws millions of pilgrims each year. Mashhad is also the logical staging point for visiting Afghanistan or Turkmenistan. But rather than face the bureaucratic hassles of the latter, consider exploring northeastern Iran’s own culturally Turkmen areas north of Kalaleh or Gorgan.

Last updated: Mar 24, 2009