Jebal Barez
Encyclopedia
The Jebal Barez are a mountain chain in the Kerman Province of 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...

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They stretch for some 100 km north-west to south-east, parallel to the Halil Rud, to the north-east of Jiroft
Jiroft
Jiroft is a city in and the capital of Jiroft County, Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 95,031, in 19,926 families. It is located south of the city of Kerman, and south of Tehran along Road 91...

 and to the south-west of Bam
Bam, Iran
Bam is a city in and the capital of Bam County, Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 73,823, in 19,572 families.The modern Iranian city of Bam surrounds the Bam citadel. Before the 2003 earthquake the official population count of the city was roughly 43,000. There are...

, rising to a maximal elevation of 3,400 m.
They are continued by the Savaran mountains to the south-east. They separate the plain of Hamun-e Jaz Murian
Hamun-e Jaz Murian
Hamun-e Jaz Murian is an inland basin or depression in southeast Iran, straddling the provinces of Kerman and Sistan and Baluchistan. At the center of the basin is a "seasonal lake," or hamun. The lake can remain almost totally dry during dry years, while in wetter years it can have water year...

 from that of Namakzar-e Shahdad and Lut desert.

Etymology

The root of the name of this mountain is identical to that of the Alburz in northern Iran and the Elbrus in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

, and therefore, it is likewise derived from the Old Persian term Bərəzaitī (see Hara Berezaiti
Hara Berezaiti
Harā Bərəzaitī, literally meaning "High Watchpost", is the name given in the Avestan language to a legendary mountain around which the stars and planets revolve.-Etymology and derived names:...

), meaning "high," "tall," "of stature." The more proper spelling of the name of this mountain is Albarez. Albarez is of the same construct as the names Alburz and Elbrus. The ancient Iranic peoples seem to have given this name to the tallest mountains in any area that they happened to live (exactly as the Turkic people did when they called all the tallest mountains in their sight, "Qaradağ"/Karadag, with the term qara/kara standing for great/big, as well as color black). In fact, into the early 20th century, the northern portions of the Hindu Kush
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir in the Chitral region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and is a...

 mountains near Balkh
Balkh
Balkh , was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan...

/Mazar-i Sharif was also known as Mt. Alburz, as recorded by the British travelers like Alexander Burnes
Alexander Burnes
Captain Sir Alexander Burnes was a Scottish traveller and explorer who took part in The Great Game. He was nicknamed Bokhara Burnes for his role in establishing contact with and exploring Bukhara, which made his name.-Early life:He was born in Montrose, Scotland, to the son of the local provost,...

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