Damavand, mythological mountain of Iran

Extracted from Rasekhoon

Various sources have proposed different measurements for the height of Damavand peak from the sea level. According to the National Statistic Port, the altitude of this peak is 5610 meters; other sources, including the National Geospatial Data Base of Iran, and the site of the NASA Earth Observatory, proposed 5670 meters high and 5671 meters high for the peaks of this mountain.
Damavand is a mountain in the north of Iran, which is known as the highest mountain in Iran and the highest volcano in the Middle East. Damavand is located in the central part of the Alborz mountain range in the south of the Caspian Sea and in the Larijan district of Amol city. This summit, which is located in the Mazandaran province, is visible in the sunny air of the cities of Tehran, Varamin and Qom, as well as the Caspian Sea. Larijan is the nearest town to the Mount.
Damavand is also mentioned in Iran's mythology, and its reputation is more than anything else because Zahak (the oppressive kingdom has been imprisoned here). In Persian literary works, this myth and, more generally, Mount Damavand have been mentioned. Damavand has hot water springs of Larijan, Asak and Waneh.

● Damavand Height

Various sources have proposed different measurements for the elevation of Damavand peak from the sea level. According to the National Statistic Port, the altitude of this peak is 5610 meters; other sources, including the National Geospatial Data Base of Iran, and the site of the NASA Earth Observatory, have proposed 5670 meters high and 5671 meters high for the peak of this mountain. The Persian Encyclopedia represents a list of six altitudes for this summit, ranging from 5,543 to 6,400 meters.
This peak is located in 69 km northeast of Tehran, 62 km west of Amol and 26 km north of Damavand city.
The Tineh River is located in the north, and the Haraz River is located in the south and east, and the Dalichay River is located in the west of the mountain.
Mount Damavand is located in the eastern mountains of central Alborz (Mazandaran province) from the Alborz mountain range. The peaks next to it are Vararu, Se Sang, and Gol-e Zard and Mianrud.

● Young volcano!

Damavand is a volcanic mountainous mountain that is formed in the fourth period of the so-called Holocene era and is relatively young. The volcanic activity of this mountain is limited to the smelting of sulfuric gasses. The last volcanic activities of this mountain were 38000 and 500 years ago.
Damavand is a deserted volcano that can be reactivated. In some years, including in 2007, Damavand summit smelted smoke and vapors, some of which witnesses testified it as the activation of the volcano. But in fact, in its most advanced years, with the penetration of water into the summit and encountering hot stones, a stream of water vapor exits from mouth of summit, and it seems that volcanic activity has taken place.
The mouth's diameter is about 400 meters (this requires more reliable sources), which covers a lake of ice. There are also signs of the presence of old mouths on the southern and northern side of the mountains.

● The root of name of Damavand

The name of Damavand has been recorded in two famous forms, Damavand and Danbavand. Even in some respects, both names are mentioned. The other form of the name of this mountain is recorded as Dabbavand. This mountain is also recorded with completely different names of Baconi and Jebel Lajevard. The name Damavand is mentioned in the Torah and its Assyrian name is Bacen.
Moin Encyclopedic Dictionary says about reason for naming Damavand: "Dam (= steam in Farsi) + Avand = Wand; with flames and smoke and vapor (volcano)"

● Damavand myth

Zahak was imprisoned by Fereydoon
Damavand has a special place in mythology in Iran. Its reputation is mostly because Fereydun imprisoned Zahak there in a cave until the point when he breaks the chains and kills people, and eventually he is killed by Gershasp. Still, some residents near this mountain believe Zahak is imprisoned in Damavand and believe that some voices are heard from the mountains which are his moaning.
In Tarikh-i Bal'ami, Mount Damavand is the birthplace of Kiyomars and Gur, his son. By the explanation that when his son was killed, God created a well on the mountain and Kiyomars put his son in the well. Bal'ami then quoted Moghan that Kiumars made fire over the mountain and the fire fell to the well, and from that day until today (the time of Bela'mi), ten to fifteen times it files into the air, and he narrates bout Moghan that this fire keeps demon away from his son. According to the Tarikh-I Bal'ami Jamshid was in Tabaristan, in Damavand when Zahak rmy came to him. According to a narrative the battle was between Zahak and Fereydun's army led by Kaveh near Damavand. Damavand is once again raised in relation with the kingdom of Manuchehr. Arash threw a spear from top of it to determine the border between Iran and Turan.
Later, with the rise of Sami mythology in Iran, some of the characters in these myths were also found in relation with Damavand. For instance "the common people believe that Solomon Ibn Davood imprisoned one of the beasts, called" Sakhr Al-Madhard "(rogue stones). It is said that on the summit of Damavand, the earth is flat and light comes out of the well. "

● Damavand in literature

In Iranian poems, the name Damavand usually appears in connection with the myth of Zahak being imprisoned. Ferdowsi writes in Shahnameh, in which the story depicts Zahak's being in chains by Fereydun as follows:
"he captured Zahak and then he heard a revelation who said take to Damavand without army" Asadi Tousi says this myth in Garshaspname, which follows the Shahnameh. In poems of other poets, including the narrations of Nasir Khosrow, the Vais and Ramin theosophists of Fakhrodin Asad Gurgani and the ode of Khaghani some points of this myth is seen. They sometimes have mentioned examples about greatness of Damavand.
Damavandie ode by Malek al-Shira'i Bahar is only one of several poems written about Damavand. He first began his first Damavandiyah in the year 1300 AH with the following warning:
"O white-head Mountain shine and make fire"
The poem "Damavandieh II", written in 1301 by the same poet, is one of the famous poems written about Damavand, the first few couplets are as follows:
" O'Shackled white demon!
O'dome of the world, Damavand!
You have a helmet on your head of silver
And a belt on your waste of iron
To cover your face from people
You have hidden your face behind clouds.
Damavand has been also mentioned in the Assyrians history that knew it as azure huge stone. During the Assyrian invasion of Iran, this mountain was a part of the Median territory, and it is also mentioned in the Assyrian texts. After Sargon II attack he became landowner to lands to the Damavand Mountains. During Esarhaddon's rule, the Assyrians also campaigned to Mount Damavand, but they did not advance because the Assyrians considered Damavand and the Lut desert as the end of the world.
"Diakonoff" calls the method of placing the dead bodies in the mountains as the Moghani ritual that lived on the slopes of Damavand, and spread this ritual to other parts of Iran. There are a lot of prehistoric graves in the Damavand Range.
In the eighth century AD, at the foot of Mount Damavand, there was a fortress in which Zoroastrian priest called Masmoghan and his followers lived there, and this castle was destroyed by the command of al-Mahdi, Abbasi Khalifa, and Masmoghan was killed. Masmoghan (in Arabic: Kabir al-Majus) was nickname of elders of the Qaran family, who had Parthian descent and owned lands in the foot of Damavand.
Ghazan Khan Ilkhan of the Mongol was spiritually cleansed by Shaikh Sadr al-Din and in 4th Sha'ban of 694 (Hijri) in Lar of Damavand and he became Muslim.
"It is said that Vimea and Shelanebe were two cities around the Danbavand Mountains and summer and winter are rough and Iron falls from the mountain " (Hudud al Alam., P. 147) "
Climbing
In ancient times, some had climbed to the summit of Damavand. Nasser Khosrow wrote on his Safarnama that they say that Damavand has a well at summit that sulfur and ammonium chloride is obtained from it. The owner of Asar al-Balaad and Akhbar al-'Ebad quotes that some of the inhabitants of the area said that they had reached the summit of Damavand during five days and five nights and found its summit flat with an area of 100 acres, though it seems like the cone from distance. The first successful European ascent to Damavand summit was in 1837 by Tyler Thomson. Also, the first Iranian documentary ascent to this summit dates back to 1857, when Colonel Mohammad Sadegh Khan Qajar's team set the height to 6613 ZAR.

● Main climbing routes

To reach the summit, like all the mountains, it is possible to go from any direction, but the most well-known are these fronts:
▪ The Northern Front; The route for this front is from the two refrigerators of the Suelle (on the right) and the Dobisel (on the left).
▪ Northeastern Front; Southwest Front; Simorgh Sanctuary is on this route.
▪ South Front; from the south east side of the mountain. Plour, Rineh, Gousfansara and Bargah Sevom are on this route.
The easiest path is southern front and the hardest is the northern front. The three northern, southern and northeast frontiers are located near the villages, and all have a refuge along the way.

● Shelters

In the map of the guide to climb the peaks of the central Alborz, the sanctuaries are as follows:
▪ Gusfandsara shelter (2950 m high).
▪ Bargah Sevom (south edge) at a height of 4150 m
▪ Simorgh Sanctuary (Southwest Edge) at a height of 4150 m.
▪ Takht Fereydoon sanctuary (northeastern edge) at a height of 4360 m.