TEHRAN – Changiz Sheykhli, the pioneering figure who founded Iran’s modern caving and speleology movement, died on Wednesday, August 20, in Karaj at age 99, following a period of illness.

Widely honored as the “father of Iranian caving,” Sheykhli’s death closes a formative chapter in the history of Iran’s caving community — a discipline he helped transform from an informal pastime into an organized scientific field.

Born in Mashhad in 1927, Sheykhli took up mountaineering at age 12, climbing the rocky terrain around his hometown before summiting Kolakchal (August 1945), Tochal (June 1947), and Mount Damavand. His introduction to caves came in 1943, in the Hesar region, well before caving existed in Iran as an organized pursuit.

On November 29, 1946, Sheykhli, together with S. Mostofi and A. Shafizadeh, founded Iran’s first caving association. The group adopted a motto that still guides the country’s caving community today: “The value of a discovery lies in illuminating the unknown, not in its importance.”

Over the course of his career, Sheykhli explored and documented hundreds of caves across Iran, leaving behind an extensive archive of field notes, sketches, and survey records on caves, speleology, and cave navigation. He is also historically credited with discovering the celebrated Espahbod Khorshid Cave.

Fereidoun Biglari, head of the Paleolithic Department at the National Museum of Iran, notes that as early as the 1940s and 1950s, Sheykhli was already carrying out systematic measurement, mapping, and analysis of cave formations and water systems, along with archaeological recording — methods entirely novel to Iranian caving at the time. Biglari added that Sheykhli’s legacy lives on in the dozens of Iranian caving groups whose members now volunteer their time to document caves using modern international methods, and to protect and promote the country’s natural cave heritage. “This is a generation that plays an important role in introducing this significant natural heritage,” he said, “a generation indebted to pioneers like Changiz Sheykhli.”

The culmination of Sheykhli’s lifelong dedication to documentation was The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Iran’s Caves, published by Shalfin Publications in 2021 — a compendium of detailed entries on hundreds of caves, many personally surveyed and mapped by him.

Changiz Sheykhli’s legacy endures in the generation of Iranian speleologists he inspired to continue mapping and studying the country’s hidden underground landscape.

AM