Jasb Rural District

Jasb Rural District دهستان جاسب
Rural district
The road ends to jasb
Country	Iran
Province	Markazi
County	Delijan
District	Central
Population (2006)
• Total	1,373
Website	http://jasbiha.com

Jasb Rural District (Persian: دهستان جاسب‎‎) is a rural district (dehestan) in the Central District of Delijan County, Markazi Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 1,373, in 552 families. The rural district has 7 villages. It is located 15 km NE of Delijan, in Iran.

The history of Jasb can be traced back to the Sassanid era. The story told by the village elders is that during the reign of Shah Ardeshir I, the Shah's cavalry were led into the greener pastures of the valley so that the horses could graze on the abundant greenery and could also drink from the Azna stream. Gradually as the visits from the cavalry became more frequent it was decided that nine shelters would be built in the valley so that the herders of the horses could stay overnight at various places. Eventually these nine shelters became permanently inhabited by the herders and their families and slowly grew into villages of their own. During the 2,000 years of permanent occupation two of the shelters were abandoned due to an inability of growing food on the nearby land, one of these was located west of Kerogan and some traces are still visible, the other was located downstream of Bijegan and due to the periodic flooding of the river all traces have been washed away. As time passed and only seven villages remained which they do until this day.

The first structures were built close to the Qanats so that there would be a constant water supply to the fields and for household use, as the villages grew in size the construction of buildings occurred on stone built terraces, which sloped sharply towards the river, since the river could flood quickly during heavy rains much time and labour was devoted to the maintenance of damaged terraces. Usually the houses would be built uphill from the river and the fields grown on the terraces downhill towards the river.

These villages are all located at the bottom of the Jasb valley. The valley itself is fed by the solitary Azna river which receives most of its water from the runoff of surrounding Qanats; the valley is surrounded by mountains which form a U-Shaped range, the highest peak is the Kuh-e-Velijeya rising to 3233 metres (10604 feet). Other noticeable peaks that rise over 3000 metres are in order Kuh-e-Gorg, Kuh-e-Ghalid 3155 metres (10352 feet), Kuh-e-Palangast 3135 metres (10286 feet), Kuh-e-Salahlat 3055 metres (10024 feet); however, these mountains rise from a valley level of 2200 metres.