Caspian Sea

North of Gilan, the Caspian opens onto the waters that carried merchants between Persia and Astrakhan. Anzali, on the Gilan shore, was known by the late fifteenth century and served as the port of Rasht by the middle of the eighteenth. A bar at the harbour entrance made larger vessels anchor offshore; smaller boats carried people and goods across the lagoon towards Pir Bazar and the road to Rasht.