The city of Gonbad-e Qābus (now referred to officially as Gonbad-e Kāvus) is the administrative center of the sub-province (šahrestān)…

QOM LAKE (DARYĀČA-ye QOM, or Qom Basin), also called Daryāča-ye Sāva, one of the interior watersheds in northwestern Persia (see…

ĀJĪ ČĀY (Talḵa-rūd, “Bitter river”), a river some 200 km in length which rises on the western flank of Kūh-e…

Calcium oxide is produced by heating limestone and other forms of calcium carbonate to a temperature of more than 900°…

AGRICULTURE in Iran. The rural economy, for millennia the economic and social basis for all Persian governments, is characterized by…

ĀBYĀR, title of the person given official charge of the irrigation of ābī “irrigated” lands. He may be a farmer…

ABŪ MŪSĀ, island in the Persian Gulf. i . Description. ii. Recent history. i. Description Abū Mūsā, situated near 26°…

ĀBŠŪR RŪD “salt river.” The name ābšūr is very common in Iran for those rivers with a high salt content….

ĀBŠĪNA HAMADĀN RŪD, name of a drainage system that covers several streams and small rivers along the eastern flank of…

ĀBĪ, Persian term for those agricultural lands which are irrigated; unirrigated (i.e., rain-fed) fields are called daymī (see discussion s.v….

ĀB-E GARM “warm water”: hot springs and mineral springs in Iran (Figure 10). Springs in general. Springs are defined as…

Any attempt to define Khorasan in a historical sense or to define it in terms of physical geography is a…

ĀLĀ DĀḠ, name of a number of mountains in Iran; of Turkish origin, the words mean “colored mountain.” Many mountains…

ALLĀHO AKBAR, KŪH-E, a mountain range that forms part of the northern rim of the Khorasan trench in northeastern Iran,…

ALVAND KŪH, mountain range near Hamadān, an isolated massif at a point of junction between the Zagros folds and the…

ĀMOL, a town on the Caspian shore, situated in 36° 25’ north latitude and 52° 35’ east longitude in the…

ASK SPRINGS (Figure 53). Situated at the foot of Damāvand (5,670 m) in the valley of the Harāz-rūd, Ask is…

ASTARĀBĀD BAY, also known as Gorgān Bay or Ḵalīǰ-e Gorgān, is a lagoon in the extreme southeastern corner of the…

BAḴTAGĀN LAKE, part of the Lake Nīrīz basin situated about 1,525 m above sea level in the province of Fārs,…

BAḴTĪĀRĪ MOUNTAINS, central part of the Zagros mountain range, more or less identical to the settlement area of the Baḵtīārī…

ALBORZ iii. Geography The Alborz mountains form the central part of the northern arc of mountains in Iran, which extend…

Urmia, Lake, called Lake (Daryāča-ye) Reżāʾiya in the Pahlavi period, a salt lake in northwest Iran separating the provinces of…

KHORRAMABAD (Ḵorramābād), a town and district in Lorestān, Central Zagros. Khorramabad and Lorestān have both been of great historical importance…

From the end of the 19th century onwards, Khorramshahr developed into Iran’s major commercial harbor. This development was a result…

SAFIDRUD (lit. White River), the Amardos of the Classical sources, the largest Iranian river discharging into the Caspian Sea, which it…

NOMADISM, a way of life and human existence that is connected with permanent and more or less regular movements of…

SAHAND MOUNTAIN (Kuh-e Sahand), With 3710 m the third of the great volcanoes in the volcano province of Eastern Anatolia and…

SABALĀN MOUNTAIN (Kuh-e-Sabalān; 4,740 m), the highest and spatially most extended volcano in northwestern Iran.  The mountain and its surroundings…

CITIES iv. Modern Urbanization and Modernization in Persia Over a period of decades the rapidly growing popula­tion of Persia has…

ECOLOGY, the study of organisms, both flora and fauna, in relation to their environments. The biosphere generally encompasses the thin…

DRAINAGE, the carrying away of excess surface water through runoff in permanent or intermittent streams. On Persian territory, because of…

DAŠT (plain, open ground) ,Persian term for a very specific type of landscape. In scientific geographical literature it is applied…

CLOUDS (Skt. abhrá-, Av. aβra-, Sogd. ʾβr, Khot. pyaurā- [< *pari-abrā-, but aurā- “sky”], Pashto wryaj fem. [< *abračī], Pers....

CLIMATE. Both the climate of Persia as a whole and the differences in weather among its various re­gions are determined…

COTTON i. Introduction Cotton (panba < Mid. Pers. pambag; katān; in Isfa­han kolūza; genus Gossypium), particularly the short-staple species Gossypium…

ČAŠMA (spring). Although mainly characterized by dry and arid climatic conditions, Iran and Afghanistan, as well as wide parts of…

ČĀH-BAHĀR (in Western sources written Chahbar, Charbar, Chobar), name of a town and bay on the Makrān coast of Persian…

ČAHĀR MAḤĀ(L) WA BAḴTĪĀRĪ, second smallest province (ostān) of Persia in area (Farajī et al., II, p. 533; after Kūhgīlūya…

BORŪJERD (or Barūjerd), town and šahrestān in the province of Lorestān in western Iran. Situated along the highway between Tehran…

BOJNŪRD, a town and district in Khorasan. i. The town and district. ii. History. iii. Basic population data, 1956-2011. i….

BĪNĀLŪD, KŪH-E, mountain range in northeast­ern Iran between Mašhad in the east and Nīšāpūr in the west with elevations of…

BĪJĀR, a town and a šahrestān (county) in the Kurdistan province of Iran. The town, which has the highest elevation…

BĪĀBĀNAK, a group of oasis settlements in central Iran. Located approximately between 54° 15’ and 55° 15’ E and 35°…

BEHŠAHR, older Ašraf, a town situated at 36°41′55″ north latitude and 53°32′30″ east longitude in the eastern part of central…

KARḴEH RIVER (Rud-e Karḵeh), the third longest river in Iran after the rivers Karun and Safidrud,flowing in the western provinces of the…

ĀSTĀNA, town and district in the province of Gilān. The town, also called Āstāna-ye ašrafiya, is located at lat 37°16′…

HĀMUN, DARYĀČA-YE (Lake Hāmun, lit. “lake of the plain, lowland”), also called Hāmun-e Helmand (Av. Haētumant- “provided with banks,” AirWb.,…

HĀMUN i. GEOGRAPHY The Sistān basin is the easternmost endorheic basin in Persia, draining a watershed 350,000 km2, of which…

GORGĀN ii. Dašt-e Gorgān Dašt-e Gorgān is the designation of a steppe-region of approximately 10,000 km2 near the southeastern edge…

GLACIERS and ice fields in Persia. Due to Persia’s location in the very center of the arid dry belt, stretching…

GEOLOGY. This article is concerned with those aspects of the geology of Persia that are of immediate economic and cultural…

GAČSĀRĀN, town and oilfield in the province of Ḵūzestān, southwestern Persia. Gačsārān, located in the arid foothills of the Zagros,…

FORESTS AND FORESTRY i. IN PERSIA Less than 2 percent of Persia is covered by forests, while another 8 to…

FLOODS (sayl, sayl-āb) in Persia. i. Geographical Survey. ii. Historical Survey.   i. GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY A common saying holds that…