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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
Iran is one of the world's most mountainous countries. Its
mountains have helped to shape both the political and the economic
history of the country for several centuries. The mountains enclose
several broad basins, or plateaus, on which major agricultural and
urban settlements are located. Until the twentieth century, when
major highways and railroads were constructed through the mountains
to connect the population centers, these basins tended to be
relatively isolated from one another. Typically, one major town
dominated each basin, and there were complex economic relationships
between the town and the hundreds of villages that surrounded it.
In the higher elevations of the mountains rimming the basins,
tribally organized groups practiced transhumance, moving with their
herds of sheep and goats between traditionally established summer
and winter pastures. There are no major river systems in the
country, and historically transportation was by means of caravans
that followed routes traversing gaps and passes in the mountains.
The mountains also impeded easy access to the Persian Gulf and the
Caspian Sea.
With an area of 1,648,000 square kilometers, Iran ranks
sixteenth in size among the countries of the world. Iran is about
one-fifth the size of the continental United States, or slightly
larger than the combined area of the contiguous states of
California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.
Located in southwestern Asia, Iran shares its entire northern
border with the Soviet Union. This border extends for more then
2,000 kilometers, including nearly 650 kilometers of water along
the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. Iran's western borders are
with Turkey in the north and Iraq in the south, terminating at the
Shatt al Arab (which Iranians call the Arvand Rud). The Persian
Gulf and Gulf of Oman littorals form the entire 1,770-kilometer
southern border. To the east lie Afghanistan on the north and
Pakistan on the south. Iran's diagonal distance from Azarbaijan in
the northwest to Baluchestan va Sistan in the southeast is
approximately 2,333 kilometers.
Data as of December 1987
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