Great Wall of Gorgan
Encyclopedia
The Great Wall of Gorgan is a series of ancient defensive fortifications located near Gorgan
in the Golestān Province
of northeastern Iran
, at the southeastern part of the Caspian Sea
. 37.070382°N 54.076552°W
The wall is located at a geographic narrowing between the Caspian Sea and the mountains of northeastern Iran, one of several Caspian Gates at the eastern part of a region known in antiquity as Hyrcania
, on the nomadic route from the northern steppes to the Iranian heartland, and the wall is believed to have protected the
Sassanian Empire to the south from the
peoples to the north. It is 195 kilometres long and 6 to 10 metres wide, and features over 30 fortresses spaced at intervals of between 10 and 50 kilometres. It is surpassed only by the Great Wall of China
as the longest defensive wall in existence.
It is also known as as The Red Snake among archaeologists due to the colour of its bricks, and as the Gorgan Defence Wall, Anushirvân Barrier, Firuz Barrier and Qazal Al'an, Sadd-i-Iskandar (Persian
for dam or barrier
of Alexander), as Alexander the Great is said to have passed through the Caspian Gates on his hasty march to Hyrcania
and the east.
The wall is made of standardized bricks, made from the local loess
soil, and fired in kilns along the line of the wall. The wall lies slightly to the north of a local river, and features a 5 metre ditch that conducted water along most of the wall.
This wall starts from the Caspian coast, circles north of Gonbade Kavous, continues towards the northwest, and vanishes in the Pishkamar Mountains. A logistical archaeological survey was conducted regarding the wall in 1999 due to problems in development projects, especially during construction of the Golestan Dam, which irrigates all the areas covered by the wall. At the point of the connection of the wall and the drainage canal
from the dam, architects discovered the remains of the Great Wall of Gorgan. The 40 identified castles vary in dimension and shape but the majority are square fortresses, made of the same brickwork as the wall itself and at the same period. Due to many difficulties in development and agricultural projects, archaeologists have been assigned to mark the boundary of the historical find by laying cement blocks.
A similar Sassanian
defence wall and fortification lies on the opposite side of the Caspian Sea at the port of Derbent
, with an extraordinarily well preserved Sassanian fort; that wall runs to the Caucausus mountains. Derbent and its Caspian Gates are at the western part of the historical region of Hyrcania
. While the fortification and walls on the east side of the Caspian Sea
remained unknown to the Graeco-Roman historians, the western half of the impressive "northern fortifications" in the Caucasus were well known to Classical authors.
Larger than Hadrian's Wall
and the Antonine Wall
taken together (two separate structures in Britain that marked the northern limits of the Roman Empire
), it has been called the greatest monument of its kind between Europe and China
. The wall is second only to the combined walls that make up the Great Wall of China
as the longest defensive wall in existence, and although now in substantial disrepair, it was perhaps even more solidly built than the early forms of the Great Wall.
, simultaneously with the construction of the Great Wall of China
and that it was restored during the Sassanid era (3-7th c. A.D.) In 2005 a team excavated samples of charcoal from the many brick kilns along the wall, and samples from the Gorgan Wall and the smaller Wall of Tammishe; OSL
and radiocarbon dating indicated a date for both walls in the late 5th or 6th century CE.
"If we assumed that the forts were occupied as densely as those on Hadrian's Wall, then the garrison on the Gorgan Wall would have been in the order of 30,000 men. Models, taking into account the size and room number of the barrack blocks in the Gorgan Wall forts and likely occupation density, produce figures between 15,000 and 36,000 soldiers. Even the lowest estimate suggests a strong and powerful army, all the more remarkable as our investigations focused just on 200km of vulnerable frontier, a small fraction of the thousands of kilometres of borders of one of the ancient world's largest empires."
Gorgan
Gorgan Some east of Gorgan is the Golestan National Park. The city has a regional airport and several universities. Gorgan Airport was opened in September 2005.-Etymology:...
in the Golestān Province
Golestan Province
Golestan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, located in the north-east of the country, south of the Caspian Sea. Its capital is Gorgan....
of northeastern Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, at the southeastern part of the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
. 37.070382°N 54.076552°W
The wall is located at a geographic narrowing between the Caspian Sea and the mountains of northeastern Iran, one of several Caspian Gates at the eastern part of a region known in antiquity as Hyrcania
Hyrcania
Hyrcania was the name of a satrapy located in the territories of present day Gilan, Golestan, Mazandaran and part of Turkmenistan, lands south of the Caspian Sea. To the Greeks, the Caspian Sea was the "Hyrcanian Sea".-Etymology:...
, on the nomadic route from the northern steppes to the Iranian heartland, and the wall is believed to have protected the
Sassanian Empire to the south from the
peoples to the north. It is 195 kilometres long and 6 to 10 metres wide, and features over 30 fortresses spaced at intervals of between 10 and 50 kilometres. It is surpassed only by the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
as the longest defensive wall in existence.
It is also known as as The Red Snake among archaeologists due to the colour of its bricks, and as the Gorgan Defence Wall, Anushirvân Barrier, Firuz Barrier and Qazal Al'an, Sadd-i-Iskandar (Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
for dam or barrier
Barrier
A barrier or barricade is a physical structure which blocks or impedes something.Barrier may also refer to:-Physical barriers:* Automatic full barriers, which serve to block roads at railway crossings...
of Alexander), as Alexander the Great is said to have passed through the Caspian Gates on his hasty march to Hyrcania
Hyrcania
Hyrcania was the name of a satrapy located in the territories of present day Gilan, Golestan, Mazandaran and part of Turkmenistan, lands south of the Caspian Sea. To the Greeks, the Caspian Sea was the "Hyrcanian Sea".-Etymology:...
and the east.
Description
The barrier consists of a wall, 195 kilometres long and 6 to 10 metres wide, along the length of which are located a number of fortresses, spaced at intervals of between 10 and 50 kilometres. Over 30 forts line up along the length of the wall.The wall is made of standardized bricks, made from the local loess
Loess
Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...
soil, and fired in kilns along the line of the wall. The wall lies slightly to the north of a local river, and features a 5 metre ditch that conducted water along most of the wall.
This wall starts from the Caspian coast, circles north of Gonbade Kavous, continues towards the northwest, and vanishes in the Pishkamar Mountains. A logistical archaeological survey was conducted regarding the wall in 1999 due to problems in development projects, especially during construction of the Golestan Dam, which irrigates all the areas covered by the wall. At the point of the connection of the wall and the drainage canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
from the dam, architects discovered the remains of the Great Wall of Gorgan. The 40 identified castles vary in dimension and shape but the majority are square fortresses, made of the same brickwork as the wall itself and at the same period. Due to many difficulties in development and agricultural projects, archaeologists have been assigned to mark the boundary of the historical find by laying cement blocks.
A similar Sassanian
Sassanid Empire
The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...
defence wall and fortification lies on the opposite side of the Caspian Sea at the port of Derbent
Derbent
Derbent |Lak]]: Чурул, Churul; Persian: دربند; Judæo-Tat: דארבּאנד/Дэрбэнд/Dərbənd) is a city in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, close to the Azerbaijani border. It is the southernmost city in Russia, and it is the second most important city of Dagestan...
, with an extraordinarily well preserved Sassanian fort; that wall runs to the Caucausus mountains. Derbent and its Caspian Gates are at the western part of the historical region of Hyrcania
Hyrcania
Hyrcania was the name of a satrapy located in the territories of present day Gilan, Golestan, Mazandaran and part of Turkmenistan, lands south of the Caspian Sea. To the Greeks, the Caspian Sea was the "Hyrcanian Sea".-Etymology:...
. While the fortification and walls on the east side of the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
remained unknown to the Graeco-Roman historians, the western half of the impressive "northern fortifications" in the Caucasus were well known to Classical authors.
Larger than Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...
and the Antonine Wall
Antonine Wall
The Antonine Wall is a stone and turf fortification built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. Representing the northernmost frontier barrier of the Roman Empire, it spanned approximately 39 miles and was about ten feet ...
taken together (two separate structures in Britain that marked the northern limits of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
), it has been called the greatest monument of its kind between Europe and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. The wall is second only to the combined walls that make up the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
as the longest defensive wall in existence, and although now in substantial disrepair, it was perhaps even more solidly built than the early forms of the Great Wall.
Dating
Dr. Kiani who led the archaeological team in 1971 believed that the wall was built during the Parthian EmpireParthian Empire
The Parthian Empire , also known as the Arsacid Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Persia...
, simultaneously with the construction of the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
and that it was restored during the Sassanid era (3-7th c. A.D.) In 2005 a team excavated samples of charcoal from the many brick kilns along the wall, and samples from the Gorgan Wall and the smaller Wall of Tammishe; OSL
Optical dating
Optical dating is a method of determining how long ago minerals were last exposed to daylight. It is useful to geologists and archaeologists who want to know when such an event occurred....
and radiocarbon dating indicated a date for both walls in the late 5th or 6th century CE.
"If we assumed that the forts were occupied as densely as those on Hadrian's Wall, then the garrison on the Gorgan Wall would have been in the order of 30,000 men. Models, taking into account the size and room number of the barrack blocks in the Gorgan Wall forts and likely occupation density, produce figures between 15,000 and 36,000 soldiers. Even the lowest estimate suggests a strong and powerful army, all the more remarkable as our investigations focused just on 200km of vulnerable frontier, a small fraction of the thousands of kilometres of borders of one of the ancient world's largest empires."
See also
- Gates of AlexanderGates of AlexanderThe Gates of Alexander was a legendary barrier supposedly built by Alexander the Great in the Caucasus to keep the uncivilized barbarians of the north from invading the land to the south. The gates were a popular subject in medieval travel literature, starting with the Alexander Romance in a...
- Iranian ArchitectureIranian architectureIranian architecture or Persian architecture is the architecture of Iran . It has a continuous history from at least 5000 BCE to the present, with characteristic examples distributed over a vast area from Turkey to North India and the borders of China and from the Caucasus to Zanzibar...
- International rankings of Iran
- Cyrus the Great in the Qur'anCyrus the Great in the Qur'anCyrus the Great in the Qur'an is a theory that holds that the character of Dhul-Qarnayn, mentioned in the Qur'an, is in fact Cyrus the Great. Dhul-Qarnayn is mentioned in the Qur'an. The story of Dhul-Qarnayn appears in sixteen verses of the Qur'an, specifically the 16 verses 18:83-98...
External links
- Aerial view in the Mazandarani wiki
- Gorgan's Great Red Snake (Science Daily,Feb 2008)
- Gorgan homepage
- First Iranian Defensive Wall: The Great Wall of Gorgan: A Research Article by Manouchehr Saadat NourySaadat NourySaadat Noury , also spelled as Saadat Nouri, is an Iranian author, a poet, and a journalist. His full name is منوچهر سعا دت نوری Manouchehr Saadat Noury .-Early life and family:...
- The Enigma of the Red Snake