The Sefid-Rud ( fa, سفیدرود, lit=white river, glk, اسپي بيه, ''Espī bīeh'') (also known as Sepid-Rud) is a river approximately long, rising in the

Alborz mountain range The Alborz ( fa, البرز) range, also spelled as Alburz, Elburz or Elborz, is a mountain range in northern Iran that stretches from the border of Azerbaijan along the western and entire southern coast of the Caspian Sea and finally runs nort ...

of northwestern Iran and flowing generally northeast to enter the Caspian Sea at Rasht. The river is Iran's second longest river after the Karun.

Names

Other names and transcriptions include Sepīd-Rūd, Sefidrud, Sefidrood, Sepidrood, and Sepidrud. Above Manjil, "Long Red River".Fortescue, L. S. (April 1924) "The Western Elburz and Persian Azerbaijan" ''The Geographical Journal'' 63(4): pp. 301-315, p.310Rawlinson, H. C. (1840) "Notes on a Journey from Tabríz, Through Persian Kurdistán, to the Ruins of Takhti-Soleïmán, and from Thence by Zenján and Ṭárom, to Gílán, in October and November, 1838; With a Memoir on the Site of the Atropatenian Ecbatana" ''Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London'' 10: pp. 1-64, p. 64 The river is identified with the Amardus ( grc, Ἀμάρδος) or Mardus (Μάρδος) river of antiquity. The river is historically famous for the quantity of its fish, especially the Caspian trout, '' Salmo trutta caspius''.

Geography

The Sefid-Rud has cut a water gap through the

, the Manjil gap,Fortescue, L. S. (April 1924) "The Western Elburz and Persian Azerbaijan" ''The Geographical Journal'' 63(4): pp. 301-315, p.303 capturing its two headwater tributaries, the Qizil Üzan and Shahrood rivers. It then widens the valley between the Talesh Hills and the main Alborz range. The gap provides a major route between Tehran and Gīlān Province with its Caspian lowlands. In the wide valley before the Sefid-Rud enters the Caspian Sea a number of transportation and irrigation canals have been cut; the two biggest are the Khomam and the Now.

Dam and reservoir

The Sefid-Rud was dammed in 1962 by the Shahbanu Farah Dam (later renamed Manjil Dam),Beaumont, Peter (1974) "Water Resource Development in Iran" ''The Geographical Journal'' 140(3): pp. 418-431, p.428 which created a reservoir and allowed the irrigation of an additional . The reservoir mediates some flooding and significantly increased rice production in the Sefid Rud Delta. The hydroelectric component of the dam generates 87,000 kilowatts. The completion of the dam had a negative impact on the river's fisheries, through reduced stream flow (due to diversion), increased water temperature, and decreased food availability, especially for

sturgeon Sturgeon is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretace ...

but also for the Caspian trout. Sefidrood360

History

The river was known in antiquity by the names Mardos ( el, Μαρδος; la, Mardus) and Amardos ( el, Αμαρδος; la, Amardus). In the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

period the north side of the Sefid (then Mardus) was occupied by the mountain tribe the Cadusii.Strabo, xi. 13
/ref> David Rohl identifies the Sefid-Rud with the Biblical Pishon river.

Gallery

File:Sefidrood.jpg File:Sefidrood2.jpg

Notes

External links

"Sefid Rood Watershed"
''Economic potentials of Kurdistan Province in the fields of Water, Agriculture and Natural Resources'' Ministry of Interior, Islamic Republic of Iran {{Rivers of Iran Rivers of Gilan Province Alborz (mountain range) Tributaries of the Caspian Sea Landforms of Kurdistan Province Landforms of East Azerbaijan Province Landforms of Ardabil Province Landforms of Zanjan Province Landforms of Qazvin Province Landforms of Tehran Province Landforms of Gilan Province