Time for another story of my backpacking trip, still in northern Iran, following the amazing trip to the Alamut region.
Although Iran isn't known for green nature since most of the country is desert-like, very diverse nature can be found here, especially in the north.
In the middle of this forest-jungle sits the Ghale-Roudkhan fortress, which was first built in the Sasanian era (224 - 651 B.C) for defense against the Arab invaders during the Muslim conquest of Persia. Later it was rebuilt around 1096 by none other than the Ismaili's cult - the Assassins! The same Assassins, who's headquarter I visited in Alamut - the Alamut castle.
The way to get to the fortress is a steep hike from the parking spot below, which at the same time is a sort of Bazar, probably due to the popularity of the place for visitors.
It feels a bit weird and surreal to have so many "shops" along this path in the middle of the forest...
The hike ↓
Once inside the gate of the fortress, you can see that the 1.5 km long border wall and the 42 towers along it, are still intact. It offers a beautiful and amazing scenery amidst the rich green of the moist forest surrounding it.
And the view is just so enjoyable.
The hike down was enjoyable and from there I continued hitchhiking into the larger towns around, towards Masuleh (more on that place in the next post).
So, I hope you enjoyed this vibrant green post, I'll follow up with some new travel stories and posts about Iran soon.
Cheers, Alban
(All pictures were taken by me with the Google Pixel 5)
Location on Pinmapple:
[//]:# (!pinmapple 37.065584 lat 49.238827 long Roudkhan Castle d3scr)