The Gulf of Gorgan ( fa, خلیج گرگان), also known as Gorgan Bay, is the largest

gulf A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodie ...

in 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 ...

. It is located at the south-eastern shore of the Caspian Sea near the cities of

Behshahr Behshahr ( fa, بهشهر; formerly Ashraf and Ashraf ol Belād) is a city in Mazandaran, Iran & the capital of Behshahr County. Located on the coast of the Caspian Sea, at the foot of the Alborz, it is approximately from Sari. At the 2006 cen ...

Gorgan Gorgan ( fa, گرگان ; also romanized as ''Gorgān'', ''Gurgān'', and ''Gurgan''), formerly Esterabad ( ; also romanized as ''Astarābād'', ''Asterabad'', and ''Esterābād''), is the capital city of Golestan Province, Iran. It lies appro ...

and

Sari A sari (sometimes also saree or shari)The name of the garment in various regional languages include: * as, শাৰী, xārī, translit-std=ISO * bn, শাড়ি, śāṛi, translit-std=ISO * gu, સાડી, sāḍī, translit-std= ...

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 ...

and is separated from the main water body by the Miankaleh peninsula and extends until the

Ashuradeh Ashūradeh ( fa, آشوراده), or Ashur Ada, is the only island of the Iranian coast of the Caspian Sea (Gorgan Bay). Ashuradeh's surface is . It is located on the eastern end of the Miankaleh peninsula in the county of Behshahr of Māzandar� ...

peninsula. The gulf and the peninsula form a wetland of about 100,000 ha with a maximum depth of 2 m in the bay. The elevation varies between 18 m and 25 m below sea level. Due to evaporation and lack of water inflow, the gulf and the marshland suffer from increasing silting, with adverse effect to local marine life and economy. Inflow of freshwater from rivers such as the Qarasu reduces salinity, with the additional effect of the water becoming muddier. According to a member of the Caspian Sea National Research Center, the gulf will have vanished by 2025 " if no efficient remedial measure is adopted".

References

{{Coord, 36, 49, 58.99, N, 53, 52, 47.78, E, display=title Bays of the Caspian Sea