Zanjan Province

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Zanjan Province استان زنجان
Location

Statistics
Capital: • Coordinates:	Zanjan • 36.6751° N 48.4845° E
Area :	21,773 km²
Population(2005): • Density :	970,946 • 44.6/km²
Sub-provinces (Shahrestan):	7
Time zone:	UTC+3:30
Main language(s):	Azeri

Zanjan (زنجان in Persian) is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the north-west of the country, and its center is Zanjan. Zanjan province has an area of 36,400 km² and has a mostly rural, Azeri population of 1.7 million.

Rakhtshurkhaneh, a traditional Qajari era laundry house, is today Zanjan's Museum of Anthropology.

Zanjan is famous for its seedless grapes. The province lies 330 km northwest of Tehran, connected to it via a freeway.

Zanjan is known for its beautiful handcrafts such as knives, traditional sandals called charoogh and malileh. Malileh is a handcraft made with silver wires. Zanjanian artists make many things like various decorative dishes and their special covers as well as silver jewelry. In ancient times, Zanjan was known for its stainless and sharp knives. But this tradition is gradually becoming extinct by introduction of Chinese knives to the market which are cheaper and better made than these primitive industires. Many villagers today are traditional carpet weavers. This is perhaps Zanjan's most popular handcraft.

Zanjan also has an incredible cave called katala khor. It is near the Sultaniyeh.

1 Geography and climate
2 History
3 Colleges and universities
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Geography and climate

Image:Zanjan, takhte soleyman.jpg Zanjan has an area of 22,164 square kilometres, occupying 1.34% of the Iranian territory. The average population density in Zanjan is 4 1/4 people per kilometre. Located north west of Iran, Zanjan covers joint borders with seven provinces-Eastern Azarbaijan, Western Azarbaijan, Hamadan, Kordestan, Gilan, Ghazvin and Ardebil.

Zanjan has a Mediterranean climate characterised by cold snowy weather in the mountains and moderate climate in the plains in wintertime. In the summers, the weather is warm. The average maximum temperature of Zanjan is around 27.1 degrees Celsius, whereas the average minimum temperature stands at -19.5 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the temperature rises to 32 degrees Celsius on hot days, whereas it drops to 27 degrees Celsius below zero on icy days. The average annual rainfall in the first month of spring stands at 72 millimetres, while in the second month of summer, it slips to a meagre 3.6 millimetres. The rate of humidity in the morning stands by average at 74% and at noon at 43%.

[edit] History

In Ptolemy's Geography, the city is referred to as Aganzana. It is said that the Sassanid king Ardashir I of Persia, reconstructed the city and called it Shahin but later it was renamed to Zangan, of which the present name is the arabicized form of.

In past times Zanjan's name was Khamseh, which means "province with five tribes".