Cultural Geomorphology: The Role of Karst Geosites in Beliefs and Folklore "Examples of Zanjan Province"

Geology and geomorphologic sites (geosites) have been more attentive to humans for reasons such as exoticism, the magnitude and diversity of colors. Throughout human history, these sites have formed part of the culture of people in different societies. In cultural geomorphology, the relationship between some cultural parts of a territory with geomorphic backgrounds is examined. In addition, some of these geosites may be important because they are part of the folklore and beliefs of the people. In this research, based on field and analytical studies, a number of karst geosites in Zanjan province during a 10-year period were investigated. The study of folklore about the formation of landforms such as And-Abad gorge, Egdaha too Spring and Kharmaneh-sar Cave illustrates the role of karst landforms in people's livelihoods and beliefs. These stories also indicate water scarcity, which is one of the geographic and climatic characteristics of the area.