<P> Derbent is derived from modern Persian: دربند ‎, translit . Darband, lit .' Barred gate' (dar "gate" + band "bar," lit., "barred gate"), referring to the adjacent pass . It is often identified with the legendary Gates of Alexander . The Persian name for the city came into use at the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century AD, when the city was re-established by Kavadh I of the Sassanid dynasty of Persia, but Derbent was probably already in the Sasanian sphere of influence as a result of the victory over the Parthians and the conquest of Caucasian Albania by Shapur I, the second shah of the Sassanid Persians . The geographical treatise Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr written in Middle Persian mentions the old name of the fortress--Wērōy - pahr (The Gruzinian Guard): </P> <P> "šahrestan (ī) kūmīs (ī) panj - burg až - i dahāg pad šabestān kard . māniš (ī) * pārsīgān ānōh būd . padxwadayīh (ī) yazdgird ī šabuhrān kard andar tāzišn ī čōl wērōy - pahr (ī) an ālag . (The city of Kūmīs of five towers Aži Dahag made it his own harem . The abode of the Parthians was there . In the reign of Yazdgird, the son of Šabuhr made it during the invasion of the Čōl, at the boundary of the Gruzinian Guard .)". </P> <P> "- Wėrōy - pahr: "The Gruzinian Guard" The old name of the fortress at Darband; ..." </P> <P> In Arabic texts the city was known as Arabic: باب الأبواب ‎, translit . Bāb al - Abwāb, lit .' Gate of Gates', or simply al - Bāb . </P>

Citadel ancient city and fortress buildings of derbent