The Gorgan Plain, or Dasht-e Gorgan ( fa, دشت گرگان), is situated in northeastern Iran in Golestan Province. It extends from the lower slopes of the

Alborz 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 ...

and

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 ...

mountain ranges to the

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslan ...

s of Turkmenistan. The River Gorgan flows through the plain from east to west, emptying into the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the List of lakes by area, 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 s ...

. The provincial capital

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 ...

lies to the south of the plain, which covers an area of about and is situated between 37°00' and 37°30' north latitude, and between 54°00' and 54°30' east longitude. The annual precipitation in the south of the plain is about which is much higher than the just to the north. The southern part is very fertile, being watered by the many streams that flow from the Alborz Mountains.

History

More than fifty

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...

sites have been identified on the Gorgan Plain. Most are raised on mounds and many have seen more than one period of occupation. The sites are thought to relate to the

Jeitun Jeitun (Djeitun) is an archaeological site of the Neolithic period in southern Turkmenistan, about 30 kilometers north of Ashgabat in the Kopet-Dag mountain range. The settlement was occupied from about 7200 to 4500 BC possibly with short interr ...

culture of southern Turkmenistan and may date to the sixth millennium BC, judging by the age of the artefacts found at Sang-i Chakmak. Other nearby sites include

Yarim Tepe Yarim Tepe is an archaeological site of an early farming settlement that goes back to about 6000 BC. It is located in the Sinjar valley some 7km southwest from the town of Tal Afar in northern Iraq. The site consists of several hills reflecting ...

, and Tureng Tepe. The Great Wall of Gorgan was built between about 420 AD and 530s AD by the Sasanian Empire on the northern edge of the plain between the Caspian Sea and the mountains. It stretched for nearly and protected the fertile plain from encroachment by White Huns from the north. The wall and forts along it were built of red

mudbrick A mudbrick or mud-brick is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE, though since 4000 BCE, bricks have also been ...

and fired brick, and to provide the water necessary for the manufacture of the bricks, a system of canals was dug across the plain; one canal paralleled the wall, which had to follow the natural gradient, while others were fed from supplier canals, which bridged the Gorgan River with the help of

qanat A qanat or kārīz is a system for transporting water from an aquifer or water well to the surface, through an underground aqueduct; the system originated approximately 3,000 BC in what is now Iran. The function is essentially the same acro ...

s. A mile to the south of the wall lies Qaleh Kharabeh, a fort that may have housed a garrison serving on the wall. It contains the remains of roadways and rows of mud-brick huts.

References

{{coord missing, Iran Plains of Iran Landforms of Golestan Province