abstract
| - The Great Wall of Gorgan is a series of ancient defensive fortifications located near Gorgan in the Golestān Province of northeastern Iran, at the southeastern corner of the Caspian Sea. The western, Caspian Sea, end of the wall is near the remains of the fort at: ; the eastern end of the wall, near the town of Pishkamar, is near the remains of the fort at: . The title coordinate is for the location of the remains of a fort midway along the wall. The wall is located at a geographic narrowing between the Caspian Sea and the mountains of northeastern Iran. It is one of several Caspian Gates at the eastern part of a region known in antiquity as Hyrcania, on the nomadic route from the northern steppes to the Iranian heartland. The wall is believed to have protected the Sassanian Empire to the south from the peoples to the north. It is long and wide, and features over 30 fortresses spaced at intervals of between . It is surpassed only by the Great Wall of China as the longest defensive wall in existence. Among archaeologists the wall is also known as The Red Snake due to the colour of its bricks. It is also known as the Gorgan Defence Wall, Anushirvân Barrier, Firuz Barrier and Qazal Al'an, and Sadd-i-Iskandar (Persian for dam or barrier of Alexander), as Alexander the Great is said to have passed through the Caspian Gates on his hasty march to Hyrcania and the east.
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