Nimrouz: the middle of the world

Everyone knows about Iranian No Ruz, even though it’s now generally thought of as New Year – rather than ‘New Day’ (click here, here and here for some of my No Ruz postings).

But what about Nimrouz – meaning mid-day, or noon?

Now the Date Line is arbitrarily set in Greenwich; but ancient Iranian wisdom set the centre of the world in Sistan, at 33.5N. The chosen location might have been based on the idea that beyond 67 degrees North there was no civilization – which sets the halfway point at 33.5N.

There is specific reference to Nim Rouz in the eleventh century Tarikh-e Sistan (The History of Sistan), describing how the world’s scholars have divided the world. Its limits are the sunrise to the east on the shortest day, to sunset in the west on longest day; and “this science is proved by arithmetic”. Even earlier, the Avesta describes how: “He, whose very long arms catches the unfaithful, overthrows him, even if he is in the East of India, in the West, or in the middle of this earth, on the outfall of Arang River”. The Arang River is now called Syrdarya or Sayhoun River, the outfall of which in Aral (Kharazm).

Another account describes how, when it was noon (Nim Rouz) in Sistan, then all the countries of the Ancient Civilization had sunshine: in the Easternmost corner it would be sunset while in the Westernmost corner it would be dawn.

It’s difficult to know how it could have been calculated in ancient times, but Nimrouz is apparently exactly in the middle of the eastern part of the earth. Its distance to the Kuril trench Islands in the Pacific Ocean (in the far east) is 90 degrees – while its distance to the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean (in the far west) is 90 degrees.

Now, there are no known remnants of Zarathusthra’s observatory, although the land of Nimrouz does still include Hamun lake and Khajeh mountain. This lake and little mountain in the middle of it is like a sample of the world – with land of Khajeh surrounded by water of Hamun lake.