Gorgan Great Wall

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Course of the Great Wall of Gorgān

The Great Wall of Gorgān ( Persian : Divār-e Bozorg-e / Pahnāvar-e Gorgān ; Arabic : Sadd'i Iskandar , Alexander's Wall ) is a border fortification in the Gorgan region in northeastern Iran . It is the oldest and longest wall in Iran and the second longest wall in Asia after the Great Wall of China .

location

The 200 km long and 6 to 10 meters wide wall is located in the Gorgān Plain (Dasht-e Gorgān) in the Iranian province of Golestan . It begins on the coast of the Caspian Sea , winds north of the city of Gonbad-e Kāvus, continues to extend northwest and disappears behind the Pīshkamar Mountains (Kuh-sar-e Pīshkamar). In the course of and in the vicinity of the wall there are a number of fortresses , which were built at intervals of 10 to 50 km. A British-Iranian research team found up to 30 such fortresses in September 2007.

history

The wall was built during the Parthian Dynasty (248 BC - 224 AD ) to protect Iran against the invasion of various northern tribes (later including the Hephthalites ). During the Sassanid period (224–651 AD) the wall was partially restored.

The archaeological studies regarding the wall began in 1976-1977 under the archaeologist Mohammad Yousef Kiāni and are continued to this day. A British-Iranian team (the ICHHTO ( Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Organization ) in cooperation with the University of Edinburgh and Durham University ) has been investigating since 2007 .

Other names

The wall is mentioned under different names in various historical documents, e.g. B. under Sadd-e Eskandar (German: Alexander's Wall), Anushirvān Dam , Firuz Dam and Ghezel Arssalan Dam .

literature

  • Manouchehr Saadat Noury. First Iranian Defensive Wall: The Great Wall of Gorgān . Persian Journal, 2007
  • 30 Parthian-Sassanian sites discovered near Iran's Gorgān Wall . In: Netindia.123.com. September 17, 2007

Web links

Coordinates: 37 ° 4 '13.38 "  N , 54 ° 4' 35.59"  O