Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – July 9, 1998

After the morning prayer, we went to the Lar dam area. We passed through Lavasan region from Letian Dam to Lar Dam. There are many green villages in the valleys. The Lar plain is very clean and full of water and green. Several rivers flow into the dam lake. Many springs flow from the foot of the mountains. At one point, two water-filled springs called "Dobrar" or two brothers are interesting.

A large number of livestock farmers are engaged in livestock farming throughout the region. They are here only for three or four months of summer and they are mostly around Tehran and the nomads of Kalhor and Hadavand etc. usually each family has about 500 sheep. They also have differences over the regions. They claim to have documents and maps. They are not allowed to build. It has a capacity of about 600 thousand animals.

In several units, they recognized me. They were happy. They smoked Esfand and offered curd and milk. We stopped at the place of Hadavand people and Kalhor people, the Gholami branch. The slaves boiled milk and drank it and slaughtered a sheep. Since we did not stay, they accompanied the bodyguards.

I visited a barite mine that is being mined. One day, they send two truckloads of barite to the factory for pulverization and packaging. They said that the price of each ton of the product is 22 thousand tomans. Before the revolution, it was a private sector, after the revolution, it became public and then it was given to the employees and they were separated from the government. They were satisfied with their income. There are 25 mines all over the country and they are mostly used in drilling oil wells, paint making, etc.; The factory is in Salafchegan and Parandak.

They said, in winter, the snow is five meters high, and from the month of June, the snow becomes water and the ground turns green. There is still a lot of snow in the grooves. At one point, we passed through a tunnel under a pile of snow. The water of the river had created this tunnel. We stopped at the camp of jihad construction and environmental organization. The guards roasted [the donated sacrificial sheep].

We reached home at four in the afternoon. On the way, I listened to part of the proceedings of the Mayor's Court. We came back through Pleur. Weak rumors of the Tehran earthquake scared people. [Mr. Militaravić], a scientist from the Balkans has predicted. In the past, I have mentioned the things that I wrote in my memoirs on the 4th of Khordad, during my trip to Gulbaf Kerman, from the words of the governor.

By the way, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 on the Richter scale occurred today around Astara and an earthquake with a magnitude of 3 on the Richter scale in Garmsar, which is similar to the previous predictions, and if we assume that his diagnosis is in a wide area and not in a specific point, the situation will be different. Previously, attention was paid to Khuzestan, and it happened in Golbaf at the same time, and an earthquake with a magnitude of 2.5 on the Richter scale occurred tonight. Anyway, there is a hot debate going on in the country and many people have left the city. Chastity also changed its place so that the lamp above our head does not fall on his head in the event of an earthquake.

In Lar region, I also visited the Fashm-Noor road. In the pass between Lar and Fashm, they are carving mountains. I saw a group of young people from Tehran going to Mazandaran on foot from the same route. I greeted and encouraged.

We also saw an Abbasid caravanserai there, which is interesting. It is made of stone and Saroj, and next to it, Hojbar Yazdani, a [capitalist of the Pahlavi period] who had a cattle ranch in that area, started an interesting building, which he did not have the opportunity to complete after the Islamic revolution. There are also some buildings left by the British that were used for tourists.