Shahrood (also transliterated
Shahroud,
Shahrud) is a city in
Semnan provinceSemnān is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the north of the country, and its center is Semnan. The province of Semnan covers an area of 96,816 square kilometers and stretches along the Alborz mountain range and borders to Dasht-e Kavir desert in its southern parts.Counties of the province...
of
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
.
It had an estimated population of 131,831 in 2005
http://www.mongabay.com/igapo/2005_world_city_populations/Iran.html and 134,920 in 2006
http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1152411907&men=gcis&lng=en&dat=32&geo=-106&srt=npan&col=aohdq&geo=-1926.
Situated about an altitude of 4413 ft (1345 m), it is located at latitude 36°25'N, longitude 055°01'E.
Shahrood (also transliterated
Shahroud,
Shahrud) is a city in
Semnan provinceSemnān is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the north of the country, and its center is Semnan. The province of Semnan covers an area of 96,816 square kilometers and stretches along the Alborz mountain range and borders to Dasht-e Kavir desert in its southern parts.Counties of the province...
of
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
.
It had an estimated population of 131,831 in 2005
http://www.mongabay.com/igapo/2005_world_city_populations/Iran.html and 134,920 in 2006
http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1152411907&men=gcis&lng=en&dat=32&geo=-106&srt=npan&col=aohdq&geo=-1926.
Situated about an altitude of 4413 ft (1345 m), it is located at latitude 36°25'N, longitude 055°01'E. Now, it is the largest city of
Semnan ProvinceSemnān is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the north of the country, and its center is Semnan. The province of Semnan covers an area of 96,816 square kilometers and stretches along the Alborz mountain range and borders to Dasht-e Kavir desert in its southern parts.Counties of the province...
and also its
countyShahrud County is a county in Semnan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Shahrud.-References:* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران [Atlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran]...
has same position in the province. The main launch site of the
Iranian Space AgencyThe Iranian Space Agency is Iran's governmental space agency. Iran is the newest but one of the active participant of Asian space race and new member of space club since 2009....
is near Shahroud.
Geography
Some 410 kilometers to the east of
TehranTehran is the capital and largest city of Iran, and the administrative center of Tehran Province. Tehran is a sprawling city at the foot of the Tochal mountain range with an immense network of highways unparalleled in Western Asia...
, half-way between the capital and Mashad, and at the junction with the
GorganGorgan is the capital of the Golestan Province, Iran. It lies approximately 400 km to the north east of Tehran, some 30 km away from the Caspian Sea. It had an estimated population of 241,000 in 2005.
...
road, sits the modern city of Shahrood, which has grown to absorb the historic town of Bastam situated in the hills a few kilometers to the north.
From the north, it is surrounded by the
AlborzAlborz , also written as Alburz or Elburz, is a mountain range in northern Iran stretching from the borders of Armenia in the northwest to the southern end of the Caspian Sea, and ending in the east at the borders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan...
mountains, and from the south by the arid salty deserts. The river of Tash, after crossing this town, reaches the south deserts. The weather on the mountainous areas is cold and it is somewhat temperate in other parts of the city.
Shahrood is located in the Damghan basin, a sub-basin of the Kavir basin which also contains the
Great Salt DesertDasht-e Kavir , also known as Kavir-e Namak or Great Salt Desert is a large desert lying in the middle of the Iranian plateau. It is about 800 kilometers long and 320 kilometers wide with a total surface area of about 77,600 square kilometers...
.
History
In 2006, traces of a prehistoric, 8,000-year-old settlements were found in Shahrud. The discoveries included ovens, craft workshops, and other evidence of settlements.
http://www.payvand.com/news/06/mar/1023.html
As a modern city, the city of Shahrood was merely a village before the reign of Fath Ali Shah of the Qajar dynasty, with two old castles and a small farm named "Shabdary". The surrounding areas however, such as Biarjomand, Miami and Bastam do have a distant history.
The old town of Bastam is located 6 kilometers north of Shahrood. Its pre-Islamic history is not clear, but according to some historians, it was built during
Shapur IIShapur II the Great was the ninth King of the Persian Sassanid Empire from 309 to 379. During his long reign, the Sassanid Empire saw its first golden era since the reign of Shapur I .- Early childhood :...
period (310-379 CE). During the
AbbasidThe Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al Andalus....
era, it was the second largest town (following
DamghanDāmghān is a city in Semnan Province, Iran, from Tehran on the high-road to Meshed, at an elevation of . It has grown from a population of 34,057 to an estimated 72,098 ....
) in the Qomis province.
The town was visited by Nasser Khosrow Qubadiani, the great Iranian poet of the 12th century, and mentioned by him as the center of the Qomis province. But Bastam declined during the Mongol era assaults, and Shahrood eventually took its place.
Attractions
The most interesting historical sites of Shahrood are:
- The Saljuki Mosque which is located in Bastam. Its construction belongs to the year 1120 C.E.
- The Village of Kharaqan which is located 12 kilometers from Bastam. It was a famous village during the 14th and the 15th centuries. The tomb of Abul-Hassan Kharaqani, who is one of the most famous Arefs (mystics
Mysticism is the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight. Mysticism usually centers on a practice or practices intended to nurture those experiences or...
) of the Sufi groups of the 12th century, is located in this village. The brick building with its dome dates to the 12th century.
- The Byar Castle ruins, which is located on the south-eastern area of Bastam, and is near to the desert edge of Byarjomand. This castle has an old mosque and an old wall with three gates.
- Farumad Mosque. Located in a village by the same name 165 km to the north east of Shahrud, the original construction of this magnificent historic monument belongs to the 13th century CE. Today nothing but the ruins and demolished columns and prayer hall of this structure catch the visitor's eyes. The reason for the building of such a mosque in this village was that Farumad and the surrounding villages had developed into a major center of political activity during the Sarbedaran Movement
The Sarbadars were a mixture of religious dervishes and secular rulers that came to rule over part of western Khurasan in the midst of the disintegration of the Mongol Ilkhanate in the mid-14th century...
during the later Ilkhanid period.
- Shahrud Museum: Dating from the later Qajar and early Pahlavi
The Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran from the crowning of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1925, following the overthrow of Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty, already weakened by Soviet and British occupation....
periods, originally belonging to the Shahrud Municipality and already located in the center of the town, this two-storied structure with brick facing was transformed into the present museum in 1988 after a series of major repair and renovation works. It is an interesting structure in terms of architectural style and exterior tile works. It houses both archaeological and ethnological sections.
Higher education