Zard Kuh

Zard Kuh, “the yellow mountain”, is a high range of the central Zagros in the province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, west of Isfahan. Its highest summits rise above 4,000 metres, and snow lingers in the gullies far into summer. The range is a watershed of great importance: on its slopes rise both the Karun, which flows west and south to the Persian Gulf, and the Zayandeh, which runs east to Isfahan.

For generations the Bakhtiari, a Lor people of pastoral nomads, have moved their flocks between winter pastures in the lowlands of Khuzestan and summer pastures in these mountains. Their seasonal migration, crossing rivers and high passes with sheep, goats, horses and black goat-hair tents, has been described by travellers and filmed by documentary makers.

Zard Kuh's water has also shaped modern Iran. In the twentieth century tunnels were driven through the mountains at Kuhrang to divert water from the Karun's headstreams into the Zayandeh, increasing the flow to Isfahan. At the Kuhrang tunnel the diverted water emerges from the rock and pours into the river below. For visitors, the area offers high meadows of wild flowers in spring, trout streams and climbing routes, and the chance to meet the Bakhtiari in their summer camps.