Mount Soffeh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mount Soffeh (Persian: کوه صفه, romanized: Kuh-e Soffeh) is a mountain situated just south of the city of Isfahan, southeast of Mount Donbeh and south of the Zayanderud River in Iran.
The term "soffeh" in Persian is derived from an Arabic word "soffa" that means "stone bench" or "sofa" or "raised platform". But there are different opinions about the origin of the name of this mountain. There is this belief that the name of this mountain comes from the name of a mystic called "Mir Ali-ye Soffeh" who lived and prayed in this mountain in the second half of the 17th century during the reign of Shah Suleiman I. This is related to the belief that the mountain was used as a refuge by Sufis or Muslim mystics.
It is also believed that the word "soffeh" is somehow related to the word "safa" (meaning "purity", "pleasantness" and "enjoyment") or pleasure that is obtained and felt by visiting this mountain. There is also this opinion that "soffeh" is somehow related to the Persian word "spah" or "sepah" (meaning "army") and therefore it is related to the word "spahan" or "sepahan" (meaning a place for the army), which is the etymological origin for the name of Isfahan. And of course, there is this idea that the reason for the name "soffeh" is the existence of a flat raised platform at the foot of the mountain.[1]
Geology
Mount Soffeh is mainly made of Lower Cretaceous limestone. Only a very small narrow section of the lowest part of the mountain is formed chiefly of Jurassic shale. Mount Soffeh is located in the Sanandaj-Sirjan geological and structural zone, a geologic zone that is in the east and parallel to the Zagros geological and structural zone.[2]
