Hyrcanian Forests
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How it came to be
The Hyrcanian Forests are broad-leaved forests that run for about 1,000 km along the southern and south-western shores of the Caspian Sea, from south-eastern Azerbaijan to Golestan province in Iran. They take their name from the ancient region of Hyrcania. Forests of this kind covered much of the northern temperate zone 25 to 50 million years ago, retreated during the ice ages and survived here.
Oriental beech and Persian ironwood grow here, and more than 3,200 vascular plant species have been recorded, about 280 of them endemic or sub-endemic to the region. The Caspian tiger, once the top predator, is extinct, and the Persian leopard still lives in the forests. The oldest trees are 300 to 400 years old, and some may reach 500.
Iran nationalised its Caspian forests in the 1960s, and the pastoral communities who grazed cattle in them were moved to nearby villages. The Iranian forests were inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2019, and in 2023 parts of Azerbaijan's Hirkan National Park were added, bringing the property to 17 components.
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