Bisheh Waterfall

The Bisheh waterfall pours down a green cliff in the Zagros mountains of Lorestan, between the cities of Dorud and Khorramabad, beside the village of Bisheh. Spring water spills from the top of the rock face in many separate strands, falling some forty or fifty metres through moss, ferns and hanging plants into the river below. In spring, when the snows melt, the falls are at their fullest and the whole cliff seems to be made of water.

What makes Bisheh unusual is how most visitors arrive: by train. The Trans-Iranian Railway, built in the 1930s to link the Caspian Sea with the Persian Gulf, runs through the deep gorges of the Zagros here, and Bisheh has its own small station just above the waterfall. The line through Lorestan is one of the most dramatic stretches of the whole railway, with tunnels and bridges threaded through the mountains, and in 2021 the Trans-Iranian Railway was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.

For many families from Lorestan and beyond, a trip to Bisheh is a day out by rail: they ride the train through the mountains, get off at the station, walk down to the falls, picnic among the oaks and walnut trees, and catch a train back. The village has guesthouses and small shops, and the river below the falls is popular for wading and paddling in summer.

The surrounding valley is cut deep into the mountains, with the river, the railway and the road all squeezed into its narrow floor, and it is a good introduction to the green, well-watered country of northern Lorestan.