Hezar Masjed Mountains are a group of mountains that form the southeastern section of the

Kopet-Dag The Köpet Dag, Kopet Dagh, or Koppeh Dagh ( tk, Köpetdag; fa, کپه‌داغ), also known as the Turkmen-Khorasan Mountain Range, is a mountain range on the border between Turkmenistan and Iran that extends about along the border southeast o ...

Range. Located about 20 kilometres east of

Dargaz Dargaz ( fa, درگز, also romanized as Dar Gaz; also known as Darreh Gaz; formerly, Moḩammadābād, Moḩammadābād Arbāb, and Muhammadābād) is a city and capital of Dargaz County, in Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. The city of Dargaz ...

and 70 kilometres north of Mashhad in Razavi Khorasan Province in

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 stretched in a northwest-southeast direction (from northwest to northeast of Mashhad), the mountains are situated almost at the extreme northeastern part of Iran. With an elevation of 3040 metres, Mount Hezar Masjed is the highest peak of the group and is located almost in central section of the Hezar Masjed Mountains.

Etymology

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, “Hezar Masjed” could be considered as two words: “hezar” which means “thousand” and “masjed” that means “mosque”. So “Hezar Masjed” means “a thousand mosques”, referring to the shape and form of the mountains which almost look like the domes and minarets of mosques.

Geology

Geologically the mountains were 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

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Jurassic 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 ...

limestone rocks. The north and northwestern sections of the mountains are mainly made of

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is situated about five miles south west of Dursley, eig ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

s.Geological Map of Iran,

National Geoscience Database of Iran The National Geoscience Database of Iran or in brief NGDIR is a scientific and research government agency in Iran which works in the field of Geology of Iran and centrally manages Geoscience data. This center was established in 1999 in the field ...

, www.ngdir.ir

References

{{Reflist Landforms of Razavi Khorasan Province Mountains of Razavi Khorasan Province Mountains of Iran