Gilan province (استان گیلان, Ostān-e Gīlan) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It lies along the Caspian Sea, in Iran's Region 3, west of the province of Mazandaran, east of the province of Ardabil, and north of the provinces of Zanjan and Qazvin. It borders Azerbaijan (Astara District) in the north.
The northern section of the province is part of the territory of South (Iranian) Talysh. At the center of the province is the city of Rasht, the capital of Gilan. Other cities include Astaneh-ye Ashrafiyeh, Astara, Fuman, Hashtpar, Lahijan, Langarud, Masuleh, Manjil, Rudbar, Rudsar, Shaft, Siahkal, and Sowme'eh Sara. The main port is Bandar-e Anzali, formerly known as Bandar-e Pahlavi.
At the 2006 census, the province was home to 2,381,063 people in 669,221 households. The following census in 2011 counted 2,480,874 in 777,316 households. The latest census conducted in 2016 found Gilan to have a population of 2,530,696 people in 851,382 households.
History of Gilan
Early humans were present at Gilan since Lower Paleolithic. Darband Cave is the earliest known human habitation site in Gilan province; it is located in a deep tributary canyon of the Siah Varud and contains evidence for the earliest prehistoric human cave occupation during the Lower Paleolithic in Iran. Stone artifacts and animal fossils were discovered by a group of Iranian archaeologists that dates back to the late Chibanian. Yarshalman is a Middle Paleolithic shelter that was probably occupied by Neanderthals about 40,000 to 70,000 years ago. Later Paleolithic sites in Gilan are Chapalak Cave and Khalvasht shelter.
Caspians and Gelae (Scythian tribe)
It seems that the Gelae, or Gilites, entered the region south of the Caspian coast and west of the Amardos River (now called the Sefid-Rud) in the second or first century BCE, Pliny identifies them with the Cadusii who were living there previously. It is more likely that they were a separate people, had come from the region of Dagestan, and taken the place of the Kadusii.