Nowshahr (Persian: نوشهر), also Romanized as Now Shahr, Noshahr, and Nau Shahr; also known as Bandar-e Noshahr, formerly Dehno,[3] is a city in the Central District of Nowshahr County, Mazandaran province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.[4] The largest ethnic group in Nowshahr is the Mazandarani people and they speak the Kojuri dialect of the language. They are also fluent in Persian, the official language of Iran.[5] It is a port city[6] on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea.
At the 2006 National Census, its population was 40,578 in 11,550 households.[7] The following census in 2011 counted 43,378 people in 12,695 households.[8] The latest census in 2016 showed a population of 49,403 people in 16,287 households.[2]
With its humid, subtropical climate, sea bathing in the waters of the Caspian, and the natural environment of its mountains, Nowshahr has long been a destination for domestic tourism in Iran. It attracts visitors by the hundreds of thousands every year to its hotels and private villas, by virtue of its transport links with the other cities of Northern Iran. During the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi Nowshahr was known unofficially as the 'second capital' or 'summer capital' of Iran because it was the city in which the Shah and most high-level government officials chose to live and work during the summer months.
The city of Kojur was the centre of the land of the Ruyans. Ruyan has always been part of the Tabaristan, nowadays called Mazandaran province. The Ruyan was also called the Rostamdār, Ostandār and Rostamdele.[11]
Culture and industry
Noshahr Airport, previously an army airbase and currently a civilian-only airport is located on the western part of the city. The city is also home to Imam Khomeini University for Naval Sciences, some branches and campuses of Azad University of Noshahr and Chaloos, and Royan Institute of Higher Education. The Dual-use port of Noshahr was built by a Dutch contracting firm in late 1920s and is one of the most active ports of Iran in the Caspian Sea.[12] The city of Chaloos and its associated towns and villages were part of the Noshahr township prior to 1996 after which they formed the new township of Chaloos by legislation from the national parliament. The city has been slow to industrialize due to environmental considerations and having an already vibrant economy based on Tourism, Ship transport and Agriculture, nevertheless there are local Food processing, Timber Treatment and Steel industries. Recently[when?], a trailer assembly plant has opened in cooperation with the MAZ of Belarus.
^Nowshahr can be found at GEOnet Names Server, at this link, by opening the Advanced Search box, entering "-3077276" in the "Unique Feature Id" form, and clicking on "Search Database".
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