The Ultimate Road Trip on the Kandovan Tunnel

Kandovan Tunnel is a high mountain tunnel at an elevation of 2.662m (8,733ft) above the sea level, located on the boundary of Alborz and Mazandaran provinces, in Iran.

Kandovan Tunnel

How long is the Kandovan Tunnel?

Set high in the Central Alborz mountain range, the tunnel is 1,886m long, 5.5 m wide, and 6 m high. It carries the paved Chalus Road (Road 59), one of the busiest roads in the country, running from Karaj to Chalous city, on the Caspian sea side. Speed limit is 30km/h.

When was the Kandovan Tunnel built?

Tucked away in the northwestern corner of the country, the tunnel bypassed the defiant Kandevān Pass, a high mountain pass at an elevation of 2.989m (9,806ft) above the sea level. Building this road in such an impossible route was one the masterpiece of engineering at that time. The Kandovan tunnel was built in four years from 1935 to 1939. On 11th of May 1935 the first dynamite was used to create an opening from where workers continued digging with pick and chip-axes. It was inaugurated on 17th of May 1938.
Pic: H Abedini

 

 

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