Azizan

Mount Damavand facts for kids, with the Persian words

Mount Damavand is the highest mountain in Iran, and the highest in the whole Middle East. It is more than 5,600 metres tall. It is a volcano, but a sleeping one: it has not erupted for about 7,000 years. It stands in the Alborz mountains in the north of Iran, between the city of Tehran and the Caspian Sea, and its top is white with snow for most of the year. In Persian it is Damavand (دماوند), and it is in some of the oldest Persian stories. Below are the facts in simple words, a small activity to try at home, and the Persian words. Azizan (azizan.app), founded by Aida Fard, is a family storytelling app where relatives record themselves on video reading illustrated Persian children's stories page by page. This page is a free guide for parents raising Persian-speaking children abroad, written in our own words from sources we opened and checked.

Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.

What is Mount Damavand?

Imagine a mountain so tall that its top pokes up above the clouds, and so big that on a clear day people in Tehran can see it, white with snow. That mountain is real. It is called Damavand, and it is in Iran.

Damavand is in the Alborz, a long line of mountains in the north of Iran. It stands less than 100 kilometres from Tehran, between the city and the Caspian Sea. It is shaped like a big, wide cone, a little like a giant ice-cream cone turned upside down.

The highest mountain in Iran

Damavand is the highest mountain in Iran. It is also the highest mountain in the whole Middle East. It is more than 5,600 metres tall. The people who measure mountains do not all get the same number, so different books give slightly different heights, but they all agree it is more than 5,600 metres.

How tall is that? You would need more than three thousand grown-ups standing on top of each other to reach the top. Climbers walk for days to get there, and the air at the top is thin and very cold.

A sleeping volcano

Damavand is a volcano. A volcano is a mountain made by hot melted rock, called lava, coming up from deep inside the Earth, flowing out and cooling into stone, again and again, for a very long time.

But Damavand is a sleeping volcano. It has not erupted for about 7,000 years, long before anyone was writing books. It is quiet. Still, near the top there are small cracks where warm steam and gas puff out, and the rocks around them are yellow with sulphur. The gas has a strong, sharp smell, so climbers sometimes notice a funny smell near the top. Lower down, warm water bubbles out of the ground in hot springs.

Snow on top

Because Damavand is so tall, it is cold up there even in summer. Its top is white with snow for most of the year. In the hottest months some of the snow melts on the sunny side, but there is always some ice and snow somewhere near the top.

Sometimes clouds wrap around the mountain like a scarf, and only the white peak shows above them.

Damavand in the old stories

Damavand is in some of the oldest Persian stories. In the Shahnameh, the big book of Persian stories, there is a cruel king called Zahhak. A young hero called Fereydun, with help from Kaveh the blacksmith and the people, wins against him. Fereydun does not kill Zahhak. Instead he takes him to Mount Damavand and ties him up in a deep cave inside the mountain, so he can never hurt anyone again. You can read Fereydoun and Kaveh the Blacksmith, and see how this story is linked to the autumn festival in Mehregan explained for kids.

There is another story, about Arash the archer, who shot one arrow so far that where it landed became the border, and a long war ended. In some tellings, Arash climbs Mount Damavand to shoot his arrow. Other old tellings say he shot it from a different mountain, so storytellers do not all agree. Read it in Arash the Archer.

Try it at home: a fizzy volcano

With a grown-up, put a small cup or a plastic bottle in the middle of a big tray or a baking dish. Build a mountain around it with play dough, sand or crumpled paper, so only the top of the cup shows. That is your Damavand. You can put a little cotton wool on top for snow.

The grown-up puts two spoons of baking soda in the cup, then pours in some vinegar, with a drop of red or orange food colouring if you like. Stand back and watch: the fizzy foam bubbles up and spills down the sides, like lava. Do not taste it, and keep the vinegar and the foam away from your eyes: if any gets in, rinse with plenty of clean water. Wash your hands afterwards. Real Damavand is sleeping, but yours can wake up as many times as you like.

Damavand words in Persian

For the sea on the other side of the Alborz, see Caspian Sea facts for kids.

For parents: Damavand at home

Many Iranian families have a photo of Damavand on a wall, or a grandparent who has seen it from the road to the Caspian, or even climbed it. Ask them what they remember: the snow on the peak, the cold wind, the yellow rocks near the top. Do the fizzy-volcano activity together and say the words as you go: kooh, gholleh, barf, aatashfeshaan.

A grandparent far away can be part of it too: they can record a story on Azizan, reading it page by page in their own voice, and the child can watch it and then ask them about the big white mountain. For more of the old stories, see Shahnameh for kids.

Related guides

• Caspian Sea facts for kids
• Mehregan explained for kids
• Shahnameh for kids

Questions

How tall is Mount Damavand?

Damavand is more than 5,600 metres tall. Different measurements give slightly different numbers, but all of them are above 5,600 metres. It is the highest mountain in Iran and in the Middle East.

Is Mount Damavand a volcano?

Yes. Damavand is a sleeping, or dormant, volcano. It has not erupted for about 7,000 years, but warm steam and gas still come out of small cracks near the top, and there is yellow sulphur on the rocks there.

Where is Mount Damavand?

Damavand is in the Alborz mountains in the north of Iran, less than 100 kilometres from Tehran, between the city and the Caspian Sea.

What stories are about Mount Damavand?

In the Shahnameh, the hero Fereydun ties up the cruel king Zahhak in a deep cave inside Damavand. In some tellings of the story of Arash the archer, Arash shoots his famous arrow from Damavand, but other tellings name other places.

What is Damavand called in Persian?

Damavand (دماوند). Mountain is kooh (کوه), peak is gholleh (قله), snow is barf (برف), volcano is aatashfeshaan (آتشفشان), cloud is abr (ابر) and stone is sang (سنگ).

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Updated: 2026-11-03 · By Aida Fard

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