CHALUS

Name: Also called Chaloos, Tchalous, etc. Situation and access: Province of Mazandaran. On the Caspian Sea. Altitude 20 metres. 200 km N of Tehran via Karaj on a good twisting road. 80 km E of Ramsar, 120 km W of Babolsar on a coast road. Air port at Ramsar.

For the inhabitants of Tehran, Chalus is a seaside resort only three hours away from the capital. A seaside resort with beautiful forests. For the foreign tourist its contrast is surprising. There is also a beautiful mountain road with deep gorges, an artificial lake and the possibility of excursions in the Alma Kuh , the highest mountain complex in the Alborz range.

"The Forests of Tonekabon"

The coast itself is rather disappointing. A wall of sand_dunes hides the sea. Small concrete-block walls often prevent access to the beach. Villas of a questionable taste, painted in loud colors, are side by side with pretentious hotels.

There is a beautiful hinterland with wooden houses, granaries mounted on piles, fields which are geen or golden according to the season, cow herds and horses runing free, rows of trees which come as a surprise for those arriving from the plateau and the nearby mountain-peaks.

"Turkeman Ladies at Bandar-e Turkeman"

The Turkemans make much use of felt, particularly as roofing and floor covering for their tents, and as saddle cloths for their horses. The rolling process illustrated here lasts several hours and is designed to compact and straighten out the newly made felt so that it will lie flat. Turkeman belong to two main tribes, the yamut and Goklan, who live on the Turkeman or Gorgan steppe stretching north, east wards from Bandar-e Turkeman, the port in the South-East corner of Caspian Sea. Note the Mongoloid slit eyes and high check, bones: also the bright headgear, concolour, much used in their carpets.

"Chaloos Road (Tehran-Chaloos)"