Golestan Province (Persian: استان گلستان‎, Ostan-e Golestan) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, located in the north-east of the country south of the Caspian Sea. Its capital is Gorgan. The province was put as part of Region 1 upon the division of the provinces into 5 regions solely for coordination and development purposes on June 22nd, 2014. Golestan was split off from the province of Mazandaran in 1997. It has a population of 1.7 million (2011) and an area of 20,380 km². The province is divided into the following twelve counties (shahrestans): Aliabad County, Aqqala County, Azadshahr County, Bandar-e Gaz County, Gonbad-e Qabus County, Gorgan County, Kalaleh County, Kordkuy County, Maraveh Tappeh County, Minudasht County, Ramian County, and Torkaman County. Present-day Gorgan was called Esterabad until 1937.