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Hara Berezaiti


Harā Bərəzaitī, literally meaning "High Watchpost", is the name given in the Avestan language to a legendary mountain around which the stars and planets revolve.

Harā Bərəzaitī reflects Proto-Iranian *Harā Bṛzatī. Harā may be interpreted as "watch" or "guard", from an Indo-European root *ser- "protect". *Bṛzatī is the feminine form of the adjective *bṛzant- "high", which is cognate with Celtic brigant- (as in the Brigantes) and with Germanic burgund- (as in the Burgundians). Hence 'Harā Bərəzaitī' "High Watchpost."

The mountain has several secondary appellations, including Haraitī "the guarding one" (feminine), Taēra "peak" (Middle Persian Tērag) and Hukairya "of good deeds" (Middle Persian Hukar).

*Bṛzant- "high", is the ancestor of modern Persian boland (بلند). The legendary mountain has given its name to two physical features of the world: In Middle Persian, Harā Bərəzaitī came to be identified with Harborz, Modern Persian Alborz, a range in northern Iran, which parallels the southern edge of the Caspian Sea; and Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus range, near the border of Russia and Georgia, as well a number of other high mountains throughout the Iranian Plateau, such as the Albarez (Jebal Barez in Kerman).

In the ancient Zoroastrian scriptures of the Avesta, Harā Bərəzaitī is the source of all mountains of the world, that is, all other mountains and ranges are but lateral projections that originate at High Hara. So, for instance, the mountains of the Hindu Kush (Avestan: ishkata; Middle Persian: kofgar) appear in Yasht 19.3 as one of the spurs of High Hara.

In Avestan cosmogony, High Harā is the geographic center of the universe, immediately surrounded by the steppes of the Airyanem Vaejah, the first of the seven lands created by Ahura Mazda. It is a polar mountain around which the stars revolve; it is also the mountain behind which the sun hides at night.


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