Bandar-e Anzali - 37.468,49.463
Bandar-e Anzali (also written Bandar-e Anzelli, and also spelled Enzeli) has been and continues to be the home of Iran small Caspian fleet, which prior to 1990 consisted of only a few patrol boats and a minesweeper. Previously named Bandar-e Pahlavi, it was renamed following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, it is Iran's most important Caspian port.
In 2008 Iran announced a proposal to further develop the Anzali port facilities, as well as creating a Free Trade and Industrial Zone. Bandar-e Anzali is also home to Shahid Tamiidi Industries, a member of the Maritime Industries Group of the state run Defense Industries Organization.
Bandar Anzali is one of the coastal cities of the Caspian Sea located in Gilan province of Iran. Bandar Anzali is the largest and the first northern port of Iran, located in the Caspian Sea. From this port, Anzali was considered as an important way of linking the economy to the East and West civilizations in many centuries.
Bandar Anzali is one of the most prominent cities in Iran, where intersperses swamps, seas, shores and grasslands, creating an exquisite and spectacular look. Anzali harbor attracts millions of tourists from all over the country and from abroad. Due to the special climate and the similarity of the game in the world's most populous cities, Anbar has already been able to sign up an immigration agreement with a number of these cities from France, Italy, Poland and other countries.
Another unique feature of this port is its potentiality in the fields of science, art and art, which has contributed to the achievements of the national and international honors. Having a high rate of education and communication and interaction with domestic and foreign tourists has led to the cultural growth of citizens.
There is scant reminder of Bandars neo-colonial past except for a row of Russian house facades and an Armenian church near Imam Khomeini Square. Of more recent historic interest is a Polish cemetery for soldiers of the so-called Ander's Army that crossed into Iran from Russia to fight for the Allies in World War II.
Resht, though termed a port, is not on the Caspian Sea, but is situated some distance inland. Its harbor, a wretched one in the late 19the Century, lay twenty-five miles away, called Anzelli; which was reached partly by a well-made road, and partly by boat, through an immense Swamp of bulrushes. At Anzelli the Russian mail steamers called once a week, on their voyage from Astrakhan, and again on their return trip from Asterabad; but the facilities for landing passengers and goods at this important Persian entree were so deplorably bad, that often in rough weather they were obliged to pass by without stopping.
The harbor of Enzelli could have been rendered accessible to the Bar of Enzelli ordinary mail steamers of the Caspian with the aid of dredgers in order to clear away the bar. During the late 19th Century, during calm weather, small steamers drawing 7 and 8 feet of water came in and went alongside a rough and ready kind of wharf that existed at Enzelli. Two good strong wooden piers constructed by the Begler- Ghazian begee at Ghazian, opposite the new custom-house, and steamers also went alongside there. The murdab [Persian = dead water], or lagoon, between Enzelli and Resht was navigable by steam launches, but by a circuitous route instead of the direct.
By the early years of the 20th Century, Persia ws in everything but name a Russian province. The entire route between Resht and Anzali on the Caspian Sea (and the direct road from Europe to Teheran) is in the hands of Russian companies, both as regards post carts and post stations; the Shah cannot purchase a rifle without the approval of the resident Cossack General, and as to raising money by a foreign loan or by the granting of concessions for mining or any other purpose known to free agents, it is simply prohibited in accordance with a bushel of protocols, treaties, and conventions between the two high contracting powers.
Late in May 1920, a detachment of the Red Army disembarked at Anzali, captured its garrison of two thousand English soldiers and its commander, General Champlain, together with large quantities of stores and munitions, and the fleet of General Denikin which had sought safety under the British flag. With the aid of local insurgents, the Bolshevist troops soon overran the whole Caspian littoral, and even threatened Teheran, the Persian capital. They thus forced the English troops to retire completely from Persia.
Petroleum was found in almost every province in Persia. On the northern frontier, along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, it is found near Anzelli and Shakhtesar and gas at Khoremabad. Oil was also found at Gumush Tepe, northwest of Astrabad, on the southeastern shore of the Caspian Sea. In 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. was formed with the object of working the concession obtained by Mr. D'Arcy from the Persian Government in 1901.
During the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty, its name was changed to the Pahlavi Port, but after the revolution, it retrieved one of its ancient names - "Anzali". Among the various definitions of anzali, the most acceptable meaning (anzal means anchor) or anchorage or anzal is equal to Anshan, which is the word Anzali distorted, Anshan means the passage and the gate that is seen in many writings.
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