Sangsar area has an old history which goes back to 1st millennium BC. First inhabitants of Sangsar used to worship moon and stars. There are some theories about Sangsar name; One of them emphasizes about a Saka origin and suggests the name used to be Sakasar or Saksar which means Saka (scythian) settlement.
Demographics
Religion
View of the old town with mosque in the background
The primary religious belief in the area now is Shi‘ite Islam. Sangesar was a Zoroastrian stronghold after the invasion of Islam. The Zoroastrians were prosecuted and forced to convert, but much of Sangesari customs have roots in Zoroastrian traditions. Before the Islamic Revolution, a major segment of the population became followers of the Baháʼí Faith in Sangsar. The Bahais migrated from Sangesar to Tehran after the revolution, due to a wide range of persecutions. As for other towns of Iran, the name has thus been changed by the Islamic Republic authorities into Mehdishahr to punish the locals and to signal its imposed pure Muslim identity. Since Bahais believed that the savior, Bab (Mehdi) had appeared, the Islamic Republic renamed Sangesar to Mehdishahr. Mehdi is the Shia Muslim hidden Imam / Savior and Shahr means town in Persian, so Mehdishahr literally means the town reclaimed by Mehdi. Sangesar population who are ancient Persians and proud of their heritage have resisted this change and continue calling their city Sangesar and they continue speaking the ancient Sangesari language.
Population
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 20,581 in 5,473 households,[8] when it was capital of the former Mehdishahr District of Semnan County.[9] The following census in 2011 counted 19,854 people in 5,705 households,[10] by which time the district had been separated from the county in the establishment of Mehdishahr County. Mehdishahr was transferred to the new Central District as the county's capital.[7] The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 24,485 people in 7,679 households.[2]
Geography
Mehdishahr is on the southern slopes of the Alborz mountains. Here, the chain of Alborz mountains is very close to the desert of Dasht-e Kavir. Sangsar, specially the northern part of it, is completely mountainous with cold winters, heavy snowfalls but with mild summers. The distance between Sangsar city and Semnan city is 20 kilometers. The altitude is about 1630 meters above sea level.
Transportation
The most important network of roads consists of Semnan to Sangsar to Shahmirzad to Fooladmahale axis which connects these places with the city of Sari. This road connects the two provinces of Mazandaran and Semnan.
^Sangsar can be found at GEOnet Names Server, at this link, by opening the Advanced Search box, entering "10601188" in the "Unique Feature Id" form, and clicking on "Search Database".
^ abDavodi, Parviz (c. 2024) [Approved 29 July 1386]. Approval letter regarding the reforms of national divisions in Semnan province. lamtakam.com (Report) (in Persian). Ministry of the Interior, Political-Defense Commission of the Government Board. Proposal 93023/42/1/4/1; Letter 58538/T26118H; Notification 160036/T38028K. Archived from the original on 2 January 2024. Retrieved 2 January 2024 – via Lam ta Kam.
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