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Location: Middle East, bordering the Gulf of Oman, the Persian
Gulf, and the Caspian Sea, between Iraq and Pakistan
Geographic coordinates: 32 00 N, 53 00 E
Map references: Middle East
Area:
total: 1.648 million sq km
land: 1.636 million sq km
water: 12,000 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly larger than Alaska
Land boundaries:
total: 5,440 km
border countries: Afghanistan 936 km, Armenia 35 km, Azerbaijan-proper
432 km, Azerbaijan-Naxcivan exclave 179 km, Iraq 1,458 km, Pakistan
909 km, Turkey 499 km, Turkmenistan 992 km
Coastline: 2,440 km
note: Iran also borders the Caspian Sea (740 km)
Maritime claims:
contiguous zone: 24 nm
continental shelf: natural prolongation
exclusive economic zone: bilateral agreements, or median
lines in the Persian Gulf
territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: mostly arid or semiarid, subtropical along Caspian
coast
Terrain: rugged, mountainous rim; high, central basin with
deserts, mountains; small, discontinuous plains along both coasts
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Caspian Sea -28 m
highest point: Qolleh-ye Damavand 5,671 m
Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, coal, chromium,
copper, iron ore, lead, manganese, zinc, sulfur
Land use:
arable land: 10%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 27%
forests and woodland: 7%
other: 55% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 94,000 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: periodic droughts, floods; dust storms,
sandstorms; earthquakes along western border and in the northeast
Environment - current issues: air pollution, especially
in urban areas, from vehicle emissions, refinery operations, and
industrial effluents; deforestation; overgrazing; desertification;
oil pollution in the Persian Gulf; inadequate supplies of potable
water
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test
Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Law
of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation
Background: Known as Persia until 1935, Iran became an Islamic
republic in 1979 after the ruling shah was forced into exile. Conservative
clerical forces subsequently crushed westernizing liberal elements.
Militant Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran on 4 November
1979 and held it until 20 January 1981. During 1980-88, Iran fought
a bloody, indecisive war with Iraq over disputed territory.
The key current issue is how rapidly the country should open up
to the modernizing influences of the outside world.
Iran
GEOGRAPHY
Size: Land area of about 1,648,000 square kilometers;
sovereignty claimed over territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles.
Topography: Large Central Plateau surrounded on
three sides by rugged mountain ranges. Highest peak Mount Damavand,
approximately 5,600 meters; Caspian Sea about 27 meters below sea
level.
SOCIETY
Population: Preliminary results of October 1986
census listed total population as 48,181,463, including approximately
2.6 million refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq. Population grew
at rate of 3.6 percent per annum between 1976 and 1986. Government
figures showed 50 percent of population under fifteen years of age
in 1986.
Education: School system consists of five years
of primary (begun at seven years of age), three years of middle
school, and four years of high school education. High school has
three cycles: academic, science and mathematics, and vocational
technical. Government announced 11.5 million students in above school
system in academic year 1986-87; percentage of school age population
in school not published. Postrevolution decrease in university enrollments,
particularly percentage of women students, which declined from 40
percent in prerevolutionary period to 10 percent in 1984. Number
of students abroad also declined.
Health: Iranian Medical Association reported 12,300
doctors in 1986; 38,000 additional doctors needed to provide population
with minimally adequate health care. Most medical personnel located
in large cities. High infant mortality rate. Gastrointestinal, parasitic,
and respiratory diseases other chief causes of mortality.
Languages: Persian official language and native
tongue of over half the population. Spoken as a second language
by majority of the remainder. Other Indo-European languages, such
as Kirmanji (the collective term in Iran for the dialects spoken
by Kurds), as well as Turkic languages and Arabic also important.
Religion: Shia Islam official religion with at
least 90 percent adherence. Also approximately 8 percent Sunni Muslims
and smaller numbers of Bahais, Armenian and Assyrian Christians,
Jews, and Zoroastrians.
Data as of December 1987
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
Iran
Topography
Iran consists of rugged, mountainous rims surrounding high interior
basins. The main mountain chain is the Zagros Mountains, a series
of parallel ridges interspersed with plains that bisect the country
from northwest to southeast. Many peaks in the Zagros exceed 3,000
meters above sea level, and in the south-central region of the country
there are at least five peaks that are over 4,000 meters. As the
Zagros continue into southeastern Iran, the average elevation of
the peaks declines dramatically to under 1,500 meters. Rimming the
Caspian Sea littoral is another chain of mountains, the narrow but
high Alborz Mountains. Volcanic Mount Damavand (5,600 meters), located
in the center of the Alborz, is not only the country's highest peak
but also the highest mountain on the Eurasian landmass west of the
Hindu Kush .
The center of Iran consists of several closed basins that collectively
are referred to as the Central Plateau. The average elevation of
this plateau is about 900 meters, but several of the mountains that
tower over the plateau exceed 3,000 meters. The eastern part of
the plateau is covered by two salt deserts, the Dasht-e Kavir and
the Dasht-e Lut. Except for some scattered oases, these deserts
are uninhabited.
Iran has only two expanses of lowlands: the Khuzestan plain in
the southwest and the Caspian Sea coastal plain in the north. The
former is a roughly triangular-shaped extension of the Mesopotamia
plain and averages about 160 kilometers in width. It extends for
about 120 kilometers inland, barely rising a few meters above sea
level, then meets abruptly with the first foothills of the Zagros.
Much of the Khuzestan plain is covered with marshes. The Caspian
plain is both longer and narrower. It extends for some 640 kilometers
along the Caspian shore, but its widest point is less than 50 kilometers,
while at some places less than 2 kilometers separate the shore from
the Alborz foothills. The Persian Gulf coast south of Khuzestan
and the Gulf of Oman coast have no real plains because the Zagros
in these areas come right down to the shore.
There are no major rivers in the country. Of the small rivers and
streams, the only one that is navigable is the Karun, which shallow-
draft boats can negotiate from Khorramshahr to Ahvaz, a distance
of about 180 kilometers. Several other permanent rivers and streams
also drain into the Persian Gulf, while a number of small rivers
that originate in the northwestern Zagros or Alborz drain into the
Caspian Sea. On the Central Plateau, numerous rivers, most of which
have dry beds for the greater part of the year, form from snow melting
in the mountains during the spring and flow through permanent channels,
draining eventually into salt lakes that also tend to dry up during
the summer months. There is a permanent salt lake, Lake Urmia (the
traditional name, also cited as Lake Urmiyeh, to which it has reverted
after being called Lake Rezaiyeh under Mohammad Reza Shah), in the
northwest, whose brine content is too high to support fish or most
other forms of aquatic life. There are also several connected salt
lakes along the Iran-Afghanistan border in the province of Baluchestan
va Sistan.
Data as of December 1987
Iran
Climate
Iran has a variable climate. In the northwest, winters are cold
with heavy snowfall and subfreezing temperatures during December
and January. Spring and fall are relatively mild, while summers
are dry and hot. In the south, winters are mild and the summers
are very hot, having average daily temperatures in July exceeding
38° C. On the Khuzestan plain, summer heat is accompanied by
high humidity.
In general, Iran has an arid climate in which most of the relatively
scant annual precipitation falls from October through April. In
most of the country, yearly precipitation averages 25 centimeters
or less. The major exceptions are the higher mountain valleys of
the Zagros and the Caspian coastal plain, where precipitation averages
at least 50 centimeters annually. In the western part of the Caspian,
rainfall exceeds 100 centimeters annually and is distributed relatively
evenly throughout the year. This contrasts with some basins of the
Central Plateau that receive ten centimeters or less of precipitation
annually.
Data as of December 1987
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