What it means
قله (qolle) is the summit or highest point of a mountain. The word is borrowed from Arabic قُلَّة (qulla), and its broken plurals قلل (qolal) and قلات (qollât) confirm its Arabic origin. In Persian it is the natural, everyday word for a mountain peak, used in both spoken language and official geography. A close companion word is اوج (owj), which means peak or apex in a more figurative sense, while قله stays concrete and physical. You will often see it in the name of Iran’s highest mountains, such as قلهی دماوند (Qolle-ye Damâvand).
How to use it
- قلهی دماوند برفیه. (qolle-ye Damâvand barfiye.) “The peak of Damavand is snow-covered.”
- کوهنوردا به قله رسیدند. (kuh-navardâ be qolle residand.) “The climbers reached the summit.”
- از اینجا نمیشه قله رو دید. (az injâ nemishe qolle ro did.) “You can’t see the peak from here.”
- قلهی این کوه خیلی صعبالعبوره. (qolle-ye in kuh kheyli sa’b-ol-obure.) “The summit of this mountain is very difficult to pass.”
Cultural note
Damavand, at 5,610 metres the highest volcano in Asia, is the most iconic قله in Persian culture and appears in mythology, poetry, and national imagery. The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi describes the demon Zahhak chained inside the mountain. Summiting Damavand is a rite of passage for Iranian mountaineers, and the word قله alone, in Iranian conversation, often calls the image of that snow-covered cone to mind.