|
Iran
GEOGRAPHY
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
|
