The Binalud Mountain Range or the Binalud Range ( fa, بینالود - ''Bīnālūd'') is a mountain range that runs in a northwest-southeast direction between the Nishapur and Mashhad regions in Razavi Khorasan Province in northeastern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, to the southeast of the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...

. Although far from the

Aladagh Mountains The Aladagh Mountains or the Aladagh Range refers to a mountain range situated in the southeastern section of North Khorasan Province in the northeastern part of Iran southeast of the Caspian Sea. The range is located almost 25 kilometres south of ...

, which lie to the northwest in the Province of North Khorasan, the Binalud Mountains are located in such a way that both the Aladagh Mountains and the Binalud Range lie approximately in the same arc, curving from the northwest to the southeast. The city of Mashhad or Meshed is located in the northeastern part of the Binalud Range, and the city of Nishapur or Neyshabur lies on the southwestern section of the range. Situated somewhat to the west of the Binalud Range proper, and with an elevation of 3211 metres, Mount Binalud is the highest point both of the Binalud Mountains and of Razavi Khorasan Province as a whole.

Geology

The mountain range was formed mainly in the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

and the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Alpine orogeny and is made predominantly of

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...

and

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

rocks, with chiefly Jurassic rocks in the northwestern part and a smaller portion of

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

rocks in the western section. On the southern margin of the range and along the same northwest-southeast direction, there is a strip of

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

rocks. On the northwestern side of this strip, there is another section of Eocene rocks that are

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

in origin. The well-known Nishabur

turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of year ...

comes from the weathered and broken

trachyte Trachyte () is an extrusive igneous rock composed mostly of alkali feldspar. It is usually light-colored and aphanitic (fine-grained), with minor amounts of mafic minerals, and is formed by the rapid cooling of lava enriched with silica and al ...

s and

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

s of the Eocene volcanic rocks of this part of the mountain range. The main turquoise mines are situated about 50 kilometres northwest of the city of Nishapur in the vicinity of a village called Madan. The mountains form part of the faulting resulting from the collision of the

Arabian plate The Arabian Plate is a minor tectonic plate in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres. It is one of the three continental plates (along with the African and the Indian Plates) that have been moving northward in geological history and colliding ...

with the

Eurasian plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...

. The range takes up the motion of Central Iran on the Arabian plate at the rate of per year.

Climate

Although the Binalud Mountains are among rather higher mountains of Iran and are located in the northeastern part of Iran far from the northwestern and western mountains of the country, the mountain range still has a generally

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

Binalud Mountain Range in
Persian Mythology Persian mythology or Iranian mythology ( Persian:اساطیرشناسی ایرانی) is the body of the myths originally told by ancient Persians and other Iranian peoples, and a genre of Ancient Persian folklore. These stories concern the ori ...

Gallery of the southern foothill

Images

File:نمای رشته کوه بینالود از دشت جنوب شرقی نیشابور.jpg, A view of Binalud Mountain Range from the southern

plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

of the city of

Neyshabur Nishapur or officially Romanization of Persian, Romanized as Neyshabur ( fa, ;Or also "نیشاپور" which is closer to its original and historic meaning though it is less commonly used by modern native Persian speakers. In Persian literature, ...

, April 2020 File:بوژان، شهرستان نیشابور.jpg, Village of Buzhan,

(April 2019). This village is situated on the southern foothill of this mountain range. File:عیش آباد و بستر رودخانه خرداد 1398.jpg, Village of Eyshabad, Neyshabur (May 2019). This village is situated on the southern foothill of this mountain range. File:نمای جاده باغرود از منطقه یک نیشابور.jpg, View of Binalud Mountain Range & Baghrud Road (zone) of

from the district 1 of the city. (April 2020) File:Bagrud Road of Neyshabur's Bicycle & Pedestrian Lane.jpg, A

bicycle lane Bike lanes (US) or cycle lanes (UK) are types of bikeways (cycleways) with lanes on the roadway for cyclists only. In the United Kingdom, an on-road cycle-lane can be firmly restricted to cycles (marked with a solid white line, entry by motor ...

on the southern foothill of the Binalud Mountain Range (Bagrud Road of Neyshabur, May 2022) File:The Binalud mountain range, Neyshabur , Near the Hakim Hospital.jpg, A view of Binalud Mountain Range from near the Hakim Hospital of

(February 2019) File:Baghrud Road of Nishapur.jpg, A view of Binalud Mountain Range from Baghrud Road (zone) of

, May 2022 File:Power Girds of Neyshabur Combined Cycle Power Plant.jpg, A view of Binalud Mountain Range from Baghrud Road (zone) of Neyshabur, May 2022 File:Village of Barfriz, Nishapur (Summer of 2015).jpg, Village of Barf Riz,

(summer of 2015). This village is situated on the southern foothill of this mountain range.

Panorama

References

{{Reflist Mountain ranges of Iran Landforms of Razavi Khorasan Province