Iron Gates

The Iron Gates (Porțile de Fier; Ђердапска клисура / Đerdapska klisura or Гвоздена капија / Gvozdena kapija; Hungarian: Vaskapu-szoros) is a gorge on the river Danube. It forms part of the boundary between Serbia (to the south) and Romania (north). In the broad sense it encompasses a route of ; in the narrow sense it only encompasses the last barrier on this route, just beyond the Romanian city of Orșova, that contains two hydroelectric dams, with two power stations, Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station and Iron Gate II Hydroelectric Power Station. At this point in the Danube, the river separates the southern Carpathian Mountains from the northwestern foothills of the Balkan Mountains. The Romanian side of the gorge constitutes the Iron Gates Natural Park, whereas the Serbian part constitutes the Đerdap National Park. A wider protected area on the Serbian side was declared the UNESCO global geopark in July 2020. Archaeologists have named the Iron Gates mesolithic culture, of the central Danube region circa 13,000 to 5,000 years ago, after the gorge. One of the most important archaeological sites in Serbia and Europe is Lepenski Vir, the oldest planned settlement in Europe, located on the banks of the Danube in the Iron Gate gorge. In English, the gorge is known as Iron Gates or Iron Gate. An 1853 article about the Danube in The Times of London referred to it as "the Iron Gate, or the Gate of Trajan." In languages of the region including Romanian, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, Czech, German, and Bulgarian, names literally meaning "Iron Gates" are used to name the entire range of gorges. These names are Porțile de Fier (ˈport͡sile de ˈfjer), Vaskapu, Železné vráta, Żelazne Wrota, Eisernes Tor, and Железни врата Železni vrata. An alternative Romanian name for the last part of the route is Defileul Dunării, literally "Danube Gorge". In Serbian, the gorge is known as Đerdap (Ђердап; d͡ʑě̞rdaːp), with the last part named Đerdapska klisura (Ђердапска клисура; d͡ʑě̞rdaːpskaː klǐsura, meaning Đerdap Gorge) from the Byzantine Greek Κλεισούρα (kleisoura), "enclosure" or "pass.