Lankaran (also called Länkäran, Lencoran, and Lenkoran’) is a city in Azerbaijan. It is on the coast of the Caspian Sea, near the southern border of Iran. There were 83,300 people living there in 2010. It is next to Lankaran rayon. Lankaran was for a long time the capital of the Talysh Khanate. Lankaran International Airport is the airport for the city. There are sandy beaches near Lankaran.
The old form of the name was "Langarkanan". In Persian, it means "the place of pulling up the anchor(s)".
Education
Lankaran State University was started in 1991.
Sports
Khazar Lankaran plays football in the Azerbaijan Premier League. In 2012, the city hosted the European Masters Weightlifting Championship.
Notable natives
Jahan Talyshinskaya — folk song singer and theatre actress. Hazi Aslanov — twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Pavlov — Hero of Socialist Labor, given by the Soviet Union. Pasha Tahmazov — National Hero of Azerbaijan. Samedbey Mehmandarov — Russian army general, Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.