A forest older than the ice ages
Between the Alborz mountains and the Caspian Sea lies a band of misty, rain-fed forest that escaped the glaciers of the ice ages. Its trees are relics of broadleaf forests that once covered much of the northern hemisphere, which is why botanists value it so highly. Oriental beech dominates, alongside oak, hornbeam, maple and the Persian ironwood, a tree found almost nowhere else, whose leaves turn red and gold in autumn.
These forests were once home to the Caspian tiger, now extinct. Persian leopards, brown bears, wolves and lynx still live here. For the people of Gilan and Mazandaran the forests are home: rice paddies, tea gardens and villages like Masuleh climb the slopes beneath them.
