Rood-afshan Village
Rood-afshan is a village of the town of Damavand in the mountainous region of central Alborz. It is in a 50-km distance from Damavand, or 100 km from Tehran, and is on the way of Delichay River. Adequate water in this village has not only provided the ground for gardening and farming, but also drawn the attention of tourists and travelers. From among the gardening products of Rood-afshan we can name apple, walnut, quince, plum, and grapes. Various wild plants grow near the cold water springs of this village. To name a few we can point to the precious medicinal herbs like pennyroyal, mint, chamomile, chicory, and borage.
This village is naturally attractive from various perspectives but what has added to this attractiveness and led to its being well-known is a cave on the south with the same name as the village. During different seasons of the year, Rood-afshan cave hosts groups of mountaineers and lovers of cave, who reach the cave by taking a half-an-hour walk from the village.
Rood-afshan cave has a large entrance of about 40-meter width and 12-meter height and is located 1800 meters above sea level. Since this cave includes several vast halls, experts believe that its entrance used to be at the same level with the river some thousands of years ago; and therefore some of the river water went into the cave corridors and would go inside the cave resulting in these vast corridors. Inside the cave there have been found some porches made up of stone pieces, and also remnants of potteries which indicate that human beings used to live there in the past. The first vast corridor in Rood-afshan cave is 80 by 100 meters in diameter and has a height of 25 meters. It is located just next to the entrance. In the second corridor there are no stalactites and stalagmites. The third one is smaller and is wholly covered with beautiful columns, stalagmites, and stalactites. If you happen to visit Rood-afshan, make sure to spend at least 3 hours to see the whole cave and be equipped with suitable clothes and shoes, and also an electric torch.
Source: irib.ir
Other links:
Geography and History of Tehran
Jamshidieh Park, The First Rock Garden in Iran
Park-e Mellat
