Hyrcani
Hyrcani, or Hyrcanians, are the inhabitants of Hyrcania, an ancient region along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. In classical geography Hyrcania lay on the south side of the Caspian, roughly corresponding to parts of present-day Golestan, Gilan, and Mazandaran in northern Iran, with the Alborz mountains to the south. The name comes from the indigenous people, the Hyrcani, who spoke Iranian languages and are mentioned by Greek, Persian, and other Near Eastern writers. The region is famed for its dense forests, commonly called the Hyrcanian forests, which form a distinctive temperate woodland belt along the coast.
Historically Hyrcania was a satrapy in the Achaemenid Empire and later remained a recognized province under
In modern terminology, Hyrcania is primarily a historical designation. The area corresponds to northern Iran’s Caspian