Palangan: Place of Stairs and Bridges vs. Palangan: Place of Leopards presents Prof. Dr. Estiphan Panoussi’s alternative explanation of the name and historical identity of Palangan, the celebrated terraced village in Iranian Kurdistan.

The traditional interpretation connects Palangan with palang, the Persian and Kurdish word for “leopard,” and therefore describes the settlement as the “Place of Leopards.” Panoussi challenges this familiar reading by looking first at the village’s architecture, geography, and historical function. Steep, interconnected levels, abundant stairways, river crossings, bridges, and nearby fortifications distinguish Palangan. These features suggest that connection—not local wildlife—may hold the key to the name.

The proposed linguistic argument centers on a historical sound change in which the consonant clusters /rt/ or /rd/ may develop into /l/ in certain Iranian words and dialects. Panoussi applies this pattern to Kurdish pert or pird, meaning “bridge,” and considers whether the resulting stem pal, joined to a locative or plural suffix, could identify Palangan as the “Place of Bridges.” The village’s celebrated stair-like construction also introduces a possible relationship to Kurdish terms for steps or stairs.

The collection combines an extended exploratory research dossier with a concise presentation of the hypothesis. It examines linguistic comparisons, competing etymologies, the Tangivar gorge, bridge remains, seven reported fortifications, the Tang-i Var inscription, the Hawraman documents, regional trade routes, and the possibility that Palangan once functioned as a strategically important “Bridge-City.”

This work invites linguists, historians, archaeologists, and readers interested in Kurdish and Iranian culture to reconsider a familiar place-name through the combined evidence of language, landscape, architecture, and historical memory. It presents a thought-provoking hypothesis intended to encourage further documentation, scholarly testing, and discussion.