Ghazvin City

Ghazvin, in middle Persian : Caspian, is one of the large cities of Iran, located on the west. It is the center of Ghazvin Province, at an altitude of 1,278 m above sea level.
Ghazvin was the capital of the country when the Safavid ruled and therefore it contains plenty of historical places and museums. In terms of its historical sites it ranks the first in Iran and the third throughout the world. It's the center of Iran's calligraphy and among its famous calligraphers is Mir Emad Ghazvini.
Among its ancient highlights are Ghajar Bathhouse, Chehel Sotun Palace, the shrine of Imamzadeh Hussein, Sepah Street which is the oldest Street throughout the country.
Connection to the northern and western provinces, closeness to Tehran, existence of industrial companies and a couple of important universities like the international University of Imam Khomeini, Medical Sciences, and Azad universities and several non-state universities have made it important.
Ghazvin contains 2,500 hectares of gardens around as well as 1,004 hectare- park of Barajin and so it was selected as the Clean City of Iran by the Vice President and the head of Environment Protection Organization in 1392.
Persian is widespread in the city and the Ghazvini are originally Persian. Other languages spoken there include Azeri, and Tati which is an indigenous language. Villagers, too speak in Azeri.
Since the city, like Tehran, attracts migrators , different dialects are spoken; some of the residents speak in Maraghi, Kurdish, Lori, and Ramanlui. Its souvenirs involve pistachios and Boghlava (a kind of delicious local sweet). In fact, it's famous for its confection.

Name

The ancient Greek documents know the city as Razhiya. In European writings it was recognised as Rsas or Arsasya.
The Partihans named it after its founder, Ardpa, and the Sassanid called the city Kashvin, a land which shouldn't be ignored.
In some text the city is mentioned as Ghasvin, a city with strong and steadfast people. At any rate, the contemporary historians and archaeologists believe that Ghazvin is the Arabic form of Caspian and according to them, the Caspian folks ,who resided in the shores of the Caspian Sea, emigrated to Ghazvin gradually and founded the city. That's why in ancient Ottoman and Arabic texts the Caspian Sea is called Bahr Alghazvin.

History

The old city was the capital of the country in the time of Shah Tahmasp of the Safavid. The first Street in Iran, Sepah Street, was built in Ghazvin. Sardar Ab Anbr, the largest underground water cistern in the world with one dome, is owned by Ghazvin.

Geographical location

Ghazvin is located 50.00° at east and 36.16° at North. The city extends north to Lahijan, northeast to Raz Miyan, East to Bidestan and Mohammadiyeh, southeast to Alvand, south to the industrial town of Liya, southwest to Eghbaliyeh, west to Mahmud Abad, and northwest to Manjil.

Climate

Lying on the northwest of the country it enjoys cold, mountainous climate. It's cool in summer and cold in winter. The annual precipitation is about 318 mm and the average temperature is 14 ° Celsius.
The influence of air masses which bring a lot of rain and the existence of heights have caused the city's humidity to be acceptable. The changing procedure of the relative humidity during the year shows that the maximum humidity happens in winter and its minimum level is in summer.
The average annual humidity in the city measures 51%. Based on the weather statistics, Tir and Mordad are the hottest and Day and Bahman are the coldest months in Ghazvin.
Frost happens in late Aban and lasts for 90 days. The minimum recorded temperature in the synoptic station has been minus 24 °Celsius, on Day 20th, 1355, solar calendar.