Kashmar

Kashmar (Persian: کاشمر; /kɑːʃˈmær/) is a city in the Central District of Kashmar County, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Kashmar is near the river Shesh Taraz in the western part of the province, and south of the province's capital Mashhad, in Iran, from east to Bardaskan, west to Torbat-e Heydarieh, north to Nishapur, south to Gonabad. Until two centuries ago, this city was named Torshiz (ترشیز).

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 81,527 in 21,947 households. The following census in 2011 counted 90,200 people in 26,445 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 102,282 people in 31,775 households.

Kashmar is a city with ancient history and many legendary stories Among the historical legends are about the Cypress of Kashmar.

The Cypress of Kashmar is a mythical cypress tree of legendary beauty and gargantuan dimensions. It is said to have sprung from a branch brought by Zoroaster from Paradise and to have stood in today's Kashmar in northeastern Iran and to have been planted by Zoroaster in honor of the conversion of King Vishtaspa to Zoroastrianism. According to the Iranian physicist and historian Zakariya al-Qazwini King Vishtaspa had been a patron of Zoroaster who planted the tree himself. In his ʿAjā'ib al-makhlūqāt wa gharā'ib al-mawjūdāt, he further describes how the Al-Mutawakkil in 247 AH (861 AD) caused the mighty cypress to be felled, and then transported it across Iran, to be used for beams in his new palace at Samarra. Before, he wanted the tree to be reconstructed before his eyes. This was done in spite of protests by the Iranians, who offered a very high sum of money to save the tree. Al-Mutawakkil never saw the cypress, because he was murdered by a Turkish soldier (possibly in the employ of his son) on the night when it arrived on the banks of the Tigris.

Kashmar Fire Temple was the first Zoroastrian fire temple built by Vishtaspa at the request of Zoroaster in Kashmar. In a part of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the story of finding Zarathustra and accepting Vishtaspa's religion is regulated that after accepting Zoroastrian religion, Vishtaspa sends priests all over the universe And Azar enters the fire temples (domes) and the first of them is Adur Burzen-Mihr who founded in Kashmar and planted a cypress tree in front of the fire temple and made it a symbol of accepting the Zoroastrian religion. And he sent priests all over the world, and commanded all the famous men and women to come to that place of worship.

The city is fourth pilgrimage city in Iran and it is the second most pilgrimage city after Mashhad in Razavi Khorasan Province.

At present, Kashmar has five higher education centers, including Payame Noor University of Kashmar, Islamic Azad University of Kashmar, Jihad University of Kashmar, Kashmar Higher Education Center and the School of Nursing. According to the statistics of the above institute, 3,794,420 students are studying in the country's universities, of which about 3,500 are Kashmir students.

The city is internationally recognized for exporting saffron and handmade Persian rugs. The main souvenirs of this city are the Kashmar carpet, raisins, grapes, saffron, dried fruits, and the confectionary sohan.