The Binalud Mountain Range or the Binalud Range ( - ''Bīnālūd'') is a mountain range that runs in a northwest-southeast direction between the

Nishapur Nishapur or Neyshabur (, also ) is a city in the Central District (Nishapur County), Central District of Nishapur County, Razavi Khorasan province, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Ni ...

and

Mashhad Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. ...

regions in Razavi Khorasan Province in northeastern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, to the southeast of the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

. Although far from the

Aladagh Mountains The Aladagh Mountains or the Aladagh Range refers to a mountain range situated in the southeastern section of Iran's North Khorasan province, southeast of the Caspian Sea. The range is located 25 kilometres south of Bojnurd, the capital city of ...

, which lie to the northwest in the Province of North Khorasan, the Binalud Mountains are located in such a way that both the Aladagh Mountains and the Binalud Range lie approximately in the same arc, curving from the northwest to the southeast. The city of

is located in the northeastern part of the Binalud Range, and the city of

or Neyshabur lies on the southwestern section of the range. Situated somewhat to the west of the Binalud Range proper, and with an elevation of 3,211 metres, Mount Binalud is the highest point both of the Binalud Mountains and of Razavi Khorasan Province as a whole.

Geology

The mountain range was formed mainly in the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

and the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Alpine orogeny The Alpine orogeny, sometimes referred to as the Alpide orogeny, is an orogenic phase in the Late Mesozoic and the current Cenozoic which has formed the mountain ranges of the Alpide belt. Cause The Alpine orogeny was caused by the African c ...

and is made predominantly of

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

and

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

rocks, with chiefly Jurassic rocks in the northwestern part and a smaller portion of

Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...

rocks in the western section. On the southern margin of the range and along the same northwest-southeast direction, there is a strip of

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

rocks. On the northwestern side of this strip, there is another section of Eocene rocks that are

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

in origin. The well-known Nishabur

turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone for millennia due to its hue. The robi ...

comes from the weathered and broken

trachyte Trachyte () is an extrusive igneous rock composed mostly of alkali feldspar. It is usually light-colored and aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained), with minor amounts of mafic minerals, and is formed by the rapid cooling of lava (or shallow intrus ...

s and

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

s of the Eocene volcanic rocks of this part of the mountain range. The main turquoise mines are situated about 50 kilometres northwest of the city of Nishapur in the vicinity of a village called Madan. The mountains form part of the faulting resulting from the collision of the Arabian Plate with the Eurasian Plate. The range takes up the motion of Central Iran on the Arabian plate at the rate of per year.

Binalud Mountain Range in
Persian Mythology Iranian mythology, or Persian mythology in western term (), is the body of the myths originally told by ancient Persians and other Iranian peoples and a genre of ancient Persian folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the worl ...

Gallery of the southern foothill

Images

File:نمای رشته کوه بینالود از دشت جنوب شرقی نیشابور.jpg, A view of Binalud Mountain Range from the southern

plain In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and ...

of the city of

Neyshabur Nishapur or Neyshabur (, also ) is a city in the Central District (Nishapur County), Central District of Nishapur County, Razavi Khorasan province, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Ni ...

, April 2020 File:بوژآباد، شهرستان نیشابور.jpg, Village of Buzhan,

(April 2019). This village is situated on the southern foothill of this mountain range. File:عیش آباد و بستر رودخانه خرداد 1398.jpg, Village of Eyshabad, Neyshabur (May 2019). This village is situated on the southern foothill of this mountain range. File:نمای جاده باغرود از منطقه یک نیشابور.jpg, View of Binalud Mountain Range & Baghrud Road (zone) of

from the district 1 of the city. (April 2020) File:Bagrud Road of Neyshabur's Bicycle & Pedestrian Lane.jpg, A

bicycle lane Bike lanes (US) or cycle lanes (UK) are types of bikeways (cycleways) with lanes on the roadway for cyclists only. In the United Kingdom, an on-road cycle-lane can be firmly restricted to cycles (marked with a solid white line, entry by motor ...

on the southern foothill of the Binalud Mountain Range (Bagrud Road of Neyshabur, May 2022) File:The Binalud mountain range, Neyshabur , Near the Hakim Hospital.jpg, A view of Binalud Mountain Range from near the Hakim Hospital of

(February 2019) File:Baghrud Road of Nishapur.jpg, A view of Binalud Mountain Range from Baghrud Road (zone) of

, May 2022 File:Power Girds of Neyshabur Combined Cycle Power Plant.jpg, A view of Binalud Mountain Range from Baghrud Road (zone) of Neyshabur, May 2022 File:Village of Barfriz, Nishapur (Summer of 2015).jpg, Village of Barf Riz,

(summer of 2015). This village is situated on the southern foothill of this mountain range.

Panorama

References