Travel Guide Iron Doors

If the Gissar Mountains were the natural wall between Sogdiana and Bactria, from ancient times, fortified walls reinforced this border. In the 2nd century BC, a stone wall was built in a gorge near Derbent. This fortified line, pierced by a large gate and guarded by a fortress, protected the sedentary people from attacks by nomadic tribes. In times of peace, the caravans of traders were controlled and taxed. The iron gates no longer exist; they refer to the observations of the Buddhist monk Xuan Zang Wan who mentions in his travel reports two sets of steel reinforced gates.