Mount Damavand

Damavand is the highest mountain in Iran, a near-perfect volcanic cone about 5,610 metres high in the Alborz range north-east of Tehran. On a clear winter morning it can be seen from the capital, white above the brown ridges. It is a dormant volcano: near the summit, vents still release sulphurous gas, and climbers smell it before they see the yellow crust around the crater.

Damavand looms large in Persian literature. In the Shahnameh, Ferdowsi's Book of Kings, the hero Fereydun defeats the tyrant Zahhak, from whose shoulders grow serpents that feed on human brains, and chains him inside the mountain. Later poets used the peak as a figure for endurance and resistance, and it appears often in modern Iranian imagery as a national symbol.

The mountain is climbed by several routes, most often from the south, where a track leads to a mountain refuge and high camp before the final ascent across scree and snow. No technical climbing is needed in summer, but the altitude is serious and many turn back. Around the lower slopes are villages, hot springs and the green valleys of the Haraz road leading down to the Caspian.