Mount Hara or Harburz is described in the Avesta [Yasht 19,1] as the first mountain in the world, which took 800 years to grow, its roots reaching deep into the ground and its peak attached to the sky. The stars, the moon and the sun were thought to move around this peak. Alborz is described thus in the Bundahishn:

 

“On the nature of mountains, it says in revelation, that, at first, the mountains have grown forth in eighteen years; and Alborz ever grew till the completion of eight hundred years; two hundred years up to the star station, two hundred years to the moon station, two hundred years to the sun station, and two hundred years to the endless light. The other mountains have grown out of Alborz, in number 2244 ...” [XII, I-2]

 

While Alborz or Mount Hara was the source for both light and water, the Vourukasha Sea is described in the Avesta as the gathering point of water. This important sea occupied 'one third of the earth, to the south, on the skirts of the Harburz' [Vendidad ³ 21, 66], and was fed by a huge river, the Harahvaiti. Forming the boundaries of the inhabited world were two great rivers, which flowed out from the sea to the east and the west. The rivers were cleansed as they passed around the earth and, when they returned to the Vourukasha, their clean water was taken back up to the Peak of Hara.