The Sepid-Rud (, ) (also known as Sefid-Rud) is a

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

, approximately long, rising in the Alborz mountain range of northwestern

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 ...

and flowing generally northeast to empty into 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, ...

Rasht Rasht (; ) is a city in the Central District (Rasht County), Central District of Rasht County, Gilan province, Gilan province, Iran, serving as the capital of the province, the county, and the district. The city is also known as the "City of ...

Names

Other names and transcriptions include Sepīd-Rūd, Sefidrud, Sefidrood, Sepidrood, and Sepidrud. Above Manjil, "Long Red River".Fortescue, L. S. (April 1924) "The Western Elburz and Persian Azerbaijan" ''The Geographical Journal'' 63(4): pp. 301-315, p.310Rawlinson, H. C. (1840) "Notes on a Journey from Tabríz, Through Persian Kurdistán, to the Ruins of Takhti-Soleïmán, and from Thence by Zenján and Ṭárom, to Gílán, in October and November, 1838; With a Memoir on the Site of the Atropatenian Ecbatana" ''Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London'' 10: pp. 1-64, p. 64 William Smith equated the river with the Amardus () or Mardus (Μάρδος) river of antiquity. The river is historically famous for its abundant

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

, especially the Caspian trout, ''

Salmo trutta The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced species, in ...

caspius''.

Geography

The Sefid-Rud has cut a water gap through the Alborz mountain range, the Manjil gap,Fortescue, L. S. (April 1924) "The Western Elburz and Persian Azerbaijan" ''The Geographical Journal'' 63(4): pp. 301-315, p.303 capturing its two headwater tributaries, the Qizil Üzan and Shahrood rivers. It then widens the valley between the Talesh Hills and the main

Alborz The Alborz ( ) range, also spelled as Alburz, Elburz or Elborz, is a mountain range in northern Iran that stretches from the border of Azerbaijan along the western and entire southern coast of the Caspian Sea and finally runs northeast and merge ...

range. The gap provides a major route between

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

and Gīlān Province with its Caspian lowlands. In the wide valley before the Sefid-Rud enters the

, a number of transportation and irrigation canals have been cut; the two biggest are the Khomam and the Now.

Dam and reservoir

The Sefid-Rud was dammed in 1962 by the Shahbanu Farah Dam (later renamed Manjil Dam),Beaumont, Peter (1974) "Water Resource Development in Iran" ''The Geographical Journal'' 140(3): pp. 418-431, p.428 which created a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

and allowed the irrigation of an additional . The reservoir mediates some flooding and significantly increased rice production in the Sefid Rud delta. The hydroelectric component of the dam generates 87,000 kilowatts. The completion of the dam had a negative impact on the river's fisheries, through reduced stream flow (due to diversion), increased water temperature, and decreased food availability, especially for

sturgeon Sturgeon (from Old English ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European *''str̥(Hx)yón''-) is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the ...

but also for the Caspian trout. Sefidrood360

History

The river was known in antiquity as Mardos (; ) and Amardos (; ). In the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

, the north side of the Sefid (then Mardus) was occupied by the Cadusii mountain tribe .Strabo, xi. 13
/ref> David Rohl proposes identification of Sefid-Rud with the Biblical Pishon river.

Gallery

File:Sefidrood.jpg File:Sefidrood2.jpg

Notes

External links

"Sefid Rood Watershed"
''Economic potentials of Kurdistan Province in the fields of Water, Agriculture and Natural Resources'' Ministry of Interior, Islamic Republic of Iran {{Rivers of Iran Rivers of Gilan Province Alborz (mountain range) Tributaries of the Caspian Sea Landforms of Kurdistan province Landforms of East Azerbaijan province Landforms of Ardabil province Landforms of Zanjan province Landforms of Qazvin province Landforms of Tehran province Landforms of Gilan province