Alborz
البرزIran's newest province, separated from Tehran in 2010, around the city of Karaj at the foot of the mountains that give it its name.
Alborz province was created in 2010 from the western part of Tehran province. Its capital, Karaj, grew in the twentieth century from a garden town on the Karaj River into one of Iran's largest cities.
The province takes its name from the Alborz range, the mountain wall between the plateau and the Caspian, crossed here by the winding Chalus road.
In the Shahnameh
In the Shahnameh, the Alborz is the home of the Simorgh, the great bird who raised the abandoned infant Zal on its heights.
Cities and towns
Karajکرج
The provincial capital, west of Tehran
Hashtgerdهشتگرد
A town on the plain below the mountains
Poets of Alborzشاعران
Ahmad Shamlou
احمد شاملوPoet, translator and editor who freed Persian verse from metre altogether.