کوه

The کوه is the steady witness in Persian culture. Damavand carries the weight of myth: in the Shahnameh, the tyrant Zahhak is chained inside it, waiting until the end of time. Hiking the foothills of the Alborz on Friday mornings is a Tehrani institution, and the trails above the city are crowded by 7am. The Darband and Darake gorges, on the northern edge of Tehran, fill with families, dating couples, and old men playing backgammon at trail-side cafes. There is a proverb that already has its own glossary entry: کوه به کوه نمی‌رسد، آدم به آدم می‌رسد (kuh be kuh nemiresad, âdam be âdam miresad), "mountains do not meet, but people do," used when bumping into someone unexpectedly. In poetry, the کوه stands for what does not move while everything else does. To call a person کوه ("a mountain") is to call them strong, unshaken, a refuge for others. The Zagros range, longer and lower than the Alborz, gave shelter to Iran's nomadic populations for centuries, and those communities still climb seasonal pastures along ancient mountain routes.