Exploring Iran

Iran is a vast land with an area of 1,648,000 square kilometers and is located in the south-eastern Asia midst Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia in the north, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the east and Turkey and Iraq in the west. The entire southern boundaries of Iran are surrounded by the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman coasts. The total dry boundaries of Iran are 5170 kilometers and its total wet boundaries in north and south are 2510 kilometers. Iran is nestled in the heart of the Middle East and as a bridge connects the Caspian Sea, which is one of the most beautiful lakes of the world to the Persian Gulf and likewise as a crossroad upon the east and west route is a junction of cultural, spiritual and political glory of the world of east and west.
Iran due to continental and biological diversity belongs to the 5 superior countries of the globe and from the historical and cultural viewpoint is among the 10 excelsior countries of the world. In other words, from the tourist attraction perspective, our country is among the 10 eminent countries of the planet.
The crystal springs, pomegranate orchards, pistachio orchards, range of Populus plants, migration of caravans tribes in different seasons of starry nights, rocks, mountains, interminable lows and highs, snow-covered and extinguished volcanoes, dense jungles, Alborz mountain ranges and seashores of Caspian sea are among the spectacular and unforgettable panoramas of Iran’s Mother Nature that leaves an unparalleled memory in the mind of explorers. The face of Iran plain and desert is variable in different periods, at times it is ample from sand and stone, sometimes filled with spates and temporally is covered with snow, mud and slime and or laden with flower, herb and greenery.
The important features of Iran, which is quite significant from the discoverers viewpoint is the presence of ranges that touch the blue sky, green fields, flat plains, desert regions, rivers and varied lakes, creating an instinct that in any period of the year and from any corner of it, one of the four seasons could be viewed in a manner that in winter, in nice and calm oceans of south, water sports like swimming and ski on the water and simultaneously, in the north and west of the country’s highlands, the winter sports like ski and mountaineering can be performed and simultaneity in several cities in the coasts of the Caspian Sea, can make use of the melodious spring weather. The Caspian Sea coasts as a very beautiful band is situated between the Caspian Sea and Alborz ranges that is covered with attractive and dense jungles.
The Persian Gulf coasts are partly made-up of mountainous rocks and other part constitutes gravel and marshy edges which are not monotonous as northern coasts. The southern Iran provinces, especially Khuzestan, which forms a part of the diverse plain of Mesopotamia is very flat and even and are located in a slight altitude from the sea level. In the event that an explorer meanders amid northern or western highlands of Iran, he will explore very picturesque mini-cities, villages, orchards and grasslands that arouse his amazement. The high altitude of Iran plateaus from the sea level and localization of majority of the land in the altitude over 1000 meters is the other important peculiarities of Iran. The high and magnificent Alborz mountainous ranges from Southside, Zagros Mountains from the Westside and the mountainous ranges that are spread from Khorasan to Baluchistan, have awesomely fenced the Eastside of Iran.
The most important peaks of Iran include: Damavand in the southeast of Tehran with an altitude of 5671 meters, Sabalan in the west with an altitude of 4880 meters, Sahand in the south of Tabriz with an altitude of 4550 meters, Dena in the north of Yasuj with an altitude of 4309, Taftan in the south of Zahedan with an altitude of 3941 meters and 10 other peaks which are scattered throughout Iran. The complexity and diversity of calcic makers, has created ample caves in different provinces, especially in Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Hamedan that has been considered by innumerable explorers who travel to Iran to explore inside of these caves. Iran Mountains belong to the folds of third period of geology and some of them with plutonian origination have led to the occurrence of the hot water and mineral springs. The highlands of Iran have created a highly optimal condition for carrying out the winter and highland sports. The popular deserts of Iran viz. Dasht-e Lut and Dasht-e Kavir with an expanse of over 360 thousand square kilometers are widespread and are still accounted as the unknown notable regions. Iran with more than 500 well-known minerals and hot water springs that almost all of them are used for the provision of the drinking water and therapeutic and hygienic utilizations is having one of the most important income resources of tourism. Most of these springs are located in the Alborz, Azerbaijan and Zagros mountains and even some of them are nestled near to Isfahan, Mashhad and Bandar Abbas. The mineral water springs of Ardabil’s Sareyn, Larijan hot water in the Alborz skirts and as well the mineral water springs of Mahallat, with attention to the tourism expansion viewpoint, significant measures have taken place in them and thus in summers they attract over thousand visitors for the therapeutic and recreational uses. The southern borders of the Caspian Sea are an evergreen area with outskirts covered with jungles. The altitude of these borders is 28 meters from the level of high seas. These seashores with sandy beaches and enchanting landscapes are regarded as one of the most beautiful regions of Iran. The seashores and islands of Iran’s south, especially in the cold seasons are enjoying a significant natural attractions. The skirt of Alborz and Zagros Mountains and Iran runways are not only springs panorama but also resource of lakes appearance and tourism values.
The Islamic Republic of Iran system is the present Iran government, which was constituted after the victory of the Iran revolution in 1978 and on 1st April 1979, during an opinion poll with a positive vote of 98.2% of participants.
After the downfall of the imperial system on the 11th February in the course of the Iranian revolution in the solar year 1357 under the leadership of Ruhollah Khomeini the Islamic republic was formed. This system was subjected to opinion polls on 1st April 1979, and 98.2% of participants gave positive polls. According to the Iranian constitution, the Islamic Republic of Iran system principles was constituted on the basis of `` Republicanism and Islamism’’.
The Iran political structure includes the following intrinsic and legal individuals. The leader is nestled in the power pyramid vertex. After the leader, the political structure of the Islamic Republic is based on the three; executive, judiciary and legislative powers. Besides these constitutions, the Experts Assembly, the Guardian Council and the Expediency Discernment Council are also present.
Iran is in the neighborhood of Afghanistan and Pakistan in the east; in the north-eastern with Turkmenistan, in the north middle section with the Caspian Sea, in the western north with Azerbaijan and Armenia; in the west by Turkey and Iraq and eventually in the south to the Persian Gulf and Oman oceans.
From the natural perspective, Iran is limited in the north to Atrak stream, Caspian Sea and Aras stream, from the orient to the Hindukush and Sand valley westerner, from west to westerner skirts of the Zagros Mountains and the drainage basin of Arvand River and from south to the Persian Gulf and Oman Ocean. More than half of Iran is salt and semi salt pans. Approximately one third of Iran is highlands and a small section of Iran (including south plain of the Caspian Sea and Khuzestan plain) is also constituted of luxuriant plains. The topmost mountain of Iran is Damavand (5671 meters). From the geographical perspective, the westernmost city of Iran is Kelisakandi, easternmost city Jaleg, northernmost city Parsabad and southernmost city is Chahbahar.
Based on the segmentation rule of the country (solar year 1286 act) Iran was segmented to 4 states ``Azerbaijan’’, ``Khorasan’’, ``Fars’’ and ``Kerman & Baluchistan’’ and 10 provinces (separate from the states). This segmentation was stable till solar year 1316 with small metamorphoses.
In the solar year 1316, with the enactment of new country segmentation law, Iran was segmented to 10 provinces and 49 townships. With time perusal with formation of new provinces, the number of Iran provinces increased. For a long period after the victory of Islamic revolution, Iran as well had 24 provinces. In the solar year 1372, Ardabil province was separated from eastern Azerbaijan province. Similarly, Qom province was separated from Tehran province in the solar year 1374 and Qazvin in the solar year 1373 got separated from Zanjan province and got attached to Tehran province and in the solar year 1376 it was transducer to Qazvin province. After that Golestan got separated from Mazandaran and in the solar year 1383, Khorasan province was divided into three states: southern Khorasan, northern Khorasan and Razavi Khorasan Province and in 2/4/1389, Tehran province was divided into two provinces Tehran and Alborz. In this manner, at present Iran is made-up of 31 provinces.
The present capital of Iran is Tehran, which based on the logistics country plan which was enacted in the solar year 1388 via the Expediency Discernment Council; the capital of Iran should be transferred from Tehran to another place till 1404 of the Persian Calendar.
As far as weather is concerned, Iran is one of the matchless countries. The difference of temperature in the winter between the warmest and coolest point sometimes reaches to 50 degrees centigrade. The hottest point of earth in 2004 and 2005 was at Iran’s Lut desert. From rainfall viewpoint, Iran is in the level of semi-dry and dry.
Iran’s weather is affected from so many systems:
The Siberian high pressure system that with diffusion to southern breadths in the northern band is accompanied by snowfall and rainfalls and reduction of temperature and in other points only has a reduction in the temperature. The Mediterranean rainy system which enters Iran from westwards and leads to rain or snowfall in many of the eastern, central and west of Iran.
The southern low pressure system leads to rainfall cloudburst in the south and southwest.
The rainfall measure is very variable in Iran. In the north, it even reaches over 2113 millimeters (Rasht, 1383).
In the deserted region the rainfall is mainly very low and is around 15 mm. The rainfall in the southwest and west in the southern skirts of Alborz and northeast is moderately significant (approximately 500 mm). At other points, the rainfall measure is not over 200 mm. Iran is facing the water shortage issues. It is estimated that Iran will face the water stress situation in the year 2025.
The difference of temperature in Iran in different points is high. However, in the winter season the temperature of the Kurd city at night, even reaches up to minus 30 degrees and people of Ahwaz experience summer weather (50 degrees). The weather of northern beaches is hot and moist in summer and moderate in winter. The west and northwest regions in summers is mild and cold winters and northern region have very hot summers and moderate winters.
The fresh genetic researches of Maziar Ashrafian Bonab showed that the public kinfolk and the Iranian population groups which are settled in the present Iran (and even further from present Iran political boundaries), despite having oddly cultural differences and even sometimes talk in different languages, have a common genetical root and this common root reverts back to the primary population that were settled around ten to eleven thousand years back in the south-western plateaus of Iran. Based on this report the Aryans are immigrants from other lands and not those that migrated to Iran around four thousand years back, but these kinfolks were indigenous residents of Iran and around ten thousand years back migrated from Iran to Europe.
The history of historical civilization in Iran reaches to civilizations in Elam, Shahr-eSukhteh and Jiroft but the beginning of Iranian’s political history is from beginning of the imperial government of Iran during the Mad period. The Mad Imperial was the first imperial of Iran and therefore is considered as the beginning of the Iran’s imperial history.
Today, Iran is consisted of several kinfolks viz. Persian people, Azari, Kurd, Lor, Bakhtiari, Baluch, Mazandarani, Gilak, Qashqai, Arab, Lak, Talysh, Turkmen, Khalaj, Assyrian, Chaldean, Mandaei (Sabian), Tat, Georgian, Sistani, Armenian and Jews.
In Iran, in total around 75 languages and dialects persist and the biggest linguistic groups consists of Farsi, Turki, Azerbaijani, Kurdi, Turkmeni, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Khalaji, Talyshi, Lori, Bakhtiari, Arabic, Baluchi, Laki, Dailami, Tati, Armenian, Assyrian, Mandaei, Georgian, Hebrew, Chaldean, and many more.
Till date in none of the Iran censuses the questions related to kinfolk and linguistic coherency are mentioned. Nevertheless, this question was mentioned in the census questionnaire of the solar year 1365 but due to political considerations its related information collection was prevented. But still researches and surveys in relation to kinfolk and the linguistic combination of country are carried out. One of these researches goes back to the sampling of the country’s registry institution in the August 1991 where the mother tongue of the ladies who had referred to registration offices for the acquirement of their child’s identity card was subjected to inquiry. In this polling from the total 49,558 mothers, 46.2% of them were speaking in Farsi, 20.6% Azari, 10% Kurdi, 8.9% Lori, 7.2% Shemali, 3.5% Arabic, 2.7% Baluchi, 0.6% Turkmeni, 0.1% Armenian and 0.2% in other languages. The similar polling was conducted in 1994 and reached to the corresponding results. In these polling it was determined that the fertility level and the population peculiarities according to the mothers linguistic society is quite different and the number of viable children born in the different linguistic groups was between 2.9 and 5 but another study showed that this difference is more arising from the cultural and economical differences of these groups and not much via kinfolk and linguistic dependency.
The linguistic blend of Iran’s population based on the ``The World Factbook CIA’’ is 53% Farsi and Farsi dialects, 18% Turki and other Turki dialects, 10% Kurdi, 7% Gilaki and Mazandarani, 6% Lori, 2% Balochi, 2% Arabic and 2% other languages.
The official and ministerial language of Iran is Farsi. Farsi is one of the languages of India and European tributary. Based on the article 15 of Iran constitution, the educational books should be of this language and script, but use of the native and kinfolk languages in the literatures and group media and their literature teachings in schools, is unrestrained besides Farsi language. As well, other customs were propagated in certain periods i.e. religion of Mazdak, Mani and Christianity before Islam. In the past five hundred years, after the formation of Safavian government Shiite has consistently been the official religion of Iran. Based on the results of public population and housing in 2011, from 75,149,669 individuals with respect to religion kind, 38.99% (7, 4682,938 individuals) were Muslims, 16% (117,704 individuals) Christians, 0.1% (8,756 individuals) Jews, 0.3% (25,271 individuals) Zoroastrians, 0.7% (49,101 individuals) other religions and 0.35% (265,899 individuals) were registered unexpressed [107]. The foreign censuses have shown that from Iran population, 89% are Shiite, 9% Sunnis, 2% Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, Bahai, and followers of other religions where values are slightly different from the official statistics.
In the article 12 of Iran Islamic Republic constitution, Islam and the Jafari religion of 12 Imams is the official religion and even other Islamic religions which in the constitution have been specified about them including quadruplet religions of tradition inhabitant (Hanafi, Shafi’i, Hanbali and Maliki) and Zaidi Shiites (four Imams) are legal and possess total respect. Similarly, in the article 13 of the constitution, Christianity, Jewish and Zoroastrian Iranians are considered as the minority religions and can in the lawful limit perform based on their own faith.
The tourism in Iran is known as the collective tourism facilities viz. historical places, recreation spots, nature, transports and hotel management, etc. The Iran tourism as an industry is enjoying a very high capacity for the growth and expansion.
On the basis of the world tourism organization report, Iran has grabbed 10th rank in the ancient and historical attractions and fifth position in the intrinsic attractions worldwide but due to social and recreational limitations till date has not been effectively successful to attract foreign tourists.
The Iranian culture has a root in the history. For the cognizance of Iran’s culture one has to look upon the independent countries which are in the peripheral of Iran. Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan Republic and even Armenia and Georgia besides Kurds of Iraq and Turkey, all of them more or less have obtained a corner of Iran’s culture as an inheritance. Even the national anthem of Pakistan is in Farsi language.
In fine, the elements of Iranian culture which is beyond the boundaries of Iran can be briefly summarized as follows:
The Farsi language which is the most important index of Iranian culture
National celebrations, especially Navroze
The mythological personality’s viz. Rustom
Figurative mythology, such as daemon and Roc
Iranian architecture