Mount Sabalan

Sabalan is a great volcanic massif rising from the plateau of Ardabil in north-west Iran, its highest summit reaching about 4,800 metres, one of the three highest peaks in the country. The volcano is regarded as extinct, and at the very top, in the old crater, lies a small lake that remains frozen for much of the year.

The mountain holds a special place for the people of Azerbaijan in Iran. It is snow-covered for most of the year, and its glaciers and meltwater feed rivers and the pastures of its lower slopes, which have long been the summer grazing grounds of the Shahsavan nomads, who bring their flocks and their round felt tents up from the plains each year.

Climbers usually approach from the north-east or the south, staying at mountain huts before the summit day. The ascent is long but not technical in summer. Sabalan's other gift is heat: the area around Sarein, on its western flank, is full of hot springs, and the town has grown into a spa resort where visitors soak in mineral pools with the snowy massif in view. Local tradition attaches much lore to the mountain, and some accounts link it with Zarathustra, though this is legend rather than history.