Geography of Iran

The Iran is located in Asia, between the Iraq, with the West, and the Afghanistan and the Pakistan, in the East. The country has moreover two maritime frontages, on the Caspian Sea, in North, and on the Persian Gulf and the Golfe of Oman, in the South.

The Iran is one of the most mountainous countries of the world. Its mountains contributed to form at the same time the political and economic history country since centuries. The mountains surround several broad basins, or plates, on which are located agricultural and urban centers major.

Until the twentieth century, when the principal highways and railroads through the mountainous chains were built, these basins tended to be relatively isolated the ones from the others. Typically, a big city dominated a basin, and there were complex economic relations between the city and the hundreds of villages to its periphery.

In the heights of the mountainous chains delimiting the basins, of the organized groups in a tribal way practiced the Transhumance, moving their herds of sheep and goats between their traditional pastures of summer and winter.

There is no river system of importance in the country, and historically, transport was done by means of caravans which followed the roads crossing the collars of the mountainous chains. Those prevented also the access to the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea.

With a surface of: 1648000 km ², the Iran are classified 16th country of the world by the surface, which is equivalent to approximately 3 times that of France or 1/6 of that of Canada.

Located in the South-west of the Asia, Iran has common borders, in North, with the Arménie, the Azerbaïdjan and the Turkménistan. These borders extend on more: 2000 km, including 650 along the southern part of the Caspian Sea. The borders, in the West, are divided with the Turkey, with North, and the Iraq, in the South, finishing with the Chott el-Arab (that the Iranians call Arvand Rud). The Persian Gulf and the Golfe of Oman form the entirety of the southernmost frontage of the country, on: 1770 km. In the East the Afghanistan, in North and the Pakistan are, in the South. The distance in diagonal between the Azerbaïdjan, with the North-West and the Sistan and Baloutchistan, in South-east, is roughly of: 2333 km.

Coordinated Geographical :

Topography

Iran (Persian) consists of cut out mountainous chains surrounding of high inner basins. The principal chain is the mounts Zagros, a series of peaks intersected with plains which cut the country of the North-West to South-east. Many tops of the mounts Zagros exceed them: 3000 m with the top of the sea level and, in the area in the south of the center of the country, there are at least 5 tops of more than: 4000 Mr. While following Zagros towards the South of the country, the average altitude of the tops goes down abruptly until in lower part from: 1500 Mr. Overhanging the Caspian Sea in North, is another mountainous chain, narrower, the mounts Elbourz. The volcanic top of the Mount Damavand (: 5600 m), located at the center of Elbourz, are not only more the high summit of Iran, but also more the eurasiatic high mountain in the west of the Hindū-Kūsh.

The center of the Iran consists of several closed basins which one names collectively central Plateau. The average altitude of this plate is approximately 900 m, but several tops overhanging the plate rise with more: 3000 Mr. the oriental party of the plate is covered by two salted deserts, the Dasht-e Kavir and the Dasht-e Lut. Apart from certain very dispersed oases, these deserts are uninhabited.

The Iran has only two extended in plain: the plain of the Khuzestan, with South-west, and the coastal plain of the Caspian Sea, in North. The first is a plain in the shape of coarse triangle which is an extension of the plain of Mésopotamie and has an average width of 160 km. It extends on about 120 km inside the grounds, rising hardly more few meters above the sea level, then meets the first buttresses of the mounts Zagros. Most of the plain of Khuzestan is covered with marsh. The Caspienne plain is at the same time longer and narrower. It extends on nearly 640 km along the coast to the Caspian Sea but its greater width does not exceed 50 km, whereas to certain places, only 2 km separate it from the buttresses of the mounts Elbourz. On the coast of the Persian Gulf, in the south of the Khuzestan, like on the coast of the gulf of Oman, it does not have there really a plain since the chain of Zagros comes to finish directly on the littoral.

There are no important rivers in the country. Among small rivers met, the only one which is navigable is the Karoun (890 km), which flat boats with bottom can borrow of Khorramshahr from Ahvaz on a distance of 180 km. Other permanent rivers throw in the Persian Gulf, and of many rivers which have their source in the North-West of Zagros or Elbourz are thrown in the Caspian Sea. On the central plate, many rivers, of which the bed is drained most of the year, are formed snow melt in the mountains at the time of spring and run through permanent beds, being possibly thrown in salted lakes, which have them also tendency to dry during the summer months. There is also a salted lake, the Lac of Orumieh (its traditional name, with close to have been famous Lake Rezaieh under the reign of Mohamed Reza Shah), in the North-West, whose salinity is too high to allow fish or other forms of life watery to live there. There are also several salted lakes inter-connected along the border between the Iran and the Afghanistan, in the province of the Sistan and Baloutchistan.

Climate