Being a massive forest garden, Nahar Khoran is situated in Nahar Khoran Village (Esterabad Dehestān), ten kilometers to Ziarat countryside district inside Khaseh Rood Valley. It is eight kilometers south of Gorgan County, Golestan Province.
Nahar Khoran, a national forest, is a part of ancient Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests which formation dates back to the Jurassic period, about one hundred and seventy million years ago. This forest is one of the tourism attractions in the north of Iran. In the past, pilgrims passed through this forest and they had lunch (Nahar in Farsi) on the slopes of mountains in the south of Gorgan. It is for this reason that this place is called Nahar Khoran.
Nahar Khoran Hyrcanian forest, full of broad-leaved tree, is bounded by the Caspian Sea from the Republic of Azerbaijan to Gorgan. These Hyrcanian forests cover an area of two million hectares. As the geological structure of this forest has several layers, its height ranges from four hundred to nine hundred meters above the sea level and it varies from slope to plain. This forest garden covers three hundred hectares in which the central district is one hundred and sixty-eight hectares.
In every corner of Nahar Khoran forest, there are high lands, valleys, drainage basins, ridges, and springs. Gurgling in the highlands of this forest, one of its well-known springs is Sefid Cheshmeh. And, Nahar Khoran has only one river, Ziarat, which is forty kilometers long and irrigated from Qarah Su drainage basin.
Inside Nahar Khoran, there exists a jungle road which reaches to a wide view, Baba Taher. This view is open to the mountains and throughout the forest. Besides Baba Taher, there are many sections in the forest of Nahar Khoran. For example, restaurants, hostels, amusement parks, small bazars, some hotels, and villas are located next to Nahar Khoran square, Jangal-e Dast Kasht (Hand-planted forest) and paradise. And also, some Forest huts are spreading in different areas of this land.
There live some animals here such as boar, Jackal, bat, mouse, weasels, squirrel, eagle, falcon, laughing dove, woodpeckers, wagtails, accentors, green forest lizard, starling, crows, tit, and finch.
The vegetation in Nahar Khoran includes different plants like oak, velvet maple, parrotia, European hornbeam, lindens, sweet cherry, date-plum, raspberry bushes, ruscus, common medlar, pine, common hawthorn, cypress, magnolia, buxus, privet, weeping willow, common ivy, leucanthemum.
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