Iran - Andrew Burke [60]
Probably the best time to see Iranian picnicking in full swing is during the No Ruz holiday period; in particular, the ancient tradition of Sizdah be Dar on the 13th day after No Ruz.
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Useful Phrases
Food Glossary
SOUPS & STARTERS
MAIN COURSES
Kabab first, then everything else – like an I ranian menu.
Kabab
Other dishes
SWEETS & DESSERTS
ENGLISH-FARSI GLOSSARY
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Environment
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THE LAND
WILDLIFE
NATIONAL PARKS & RESERVES
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
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THE LAND
If you’re flying into Iran, be sure to ask for a window seat – you might be surprised by what you see. Rather than the featureless desert wasteland many perceive, Iran is a diverse land where starkly beautiful mountains border vast desert plateaus and mountain villages contrast with tiny oases.
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With an area of 1,648,000 sq km, Iran is more than three times larger than France; nearly one-fifth the size of the USA; and nearly as big as Queensland, Australia. Iran shares borders with seven countries: Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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More than half of Iran is covered by mountains and in the vast majority of places there will be a peak of some size looming at the end of the street. Four ranges are most prominent. The smaller, volcanic Sabalan and Talesh Ranges in the northwestern Azeri provinces provide fertile pastures for nomads. Nearby, the majestic Alborz Mountains skirt the Caspian Sea from the border of Azerbaijan as far as Turkmenistan, and are home to forests, ski fields and the snowcapped Mt Damavand (5671m; Click here), the Middle East’s tallest mountain. Sitting on the world’s second-largest known reserve of natural gas, the immense Zagros Mountains stretch about 1500km from Turkey to the Persian Gulf, rising and falling like the ridged back of a great crocodile. There are several peaks reaching more than 4000m, though heights fall to an average of 1500m in the southern parts of the range.
All these mountains exist because Iran sits at the junction of three major tectonic plates – the Arabian, Eurasian and Indian – making the country highly susceptible to earthquakes (see Shaking Iran’s Confidence, below).
East of the Zagros Mountains is the central plateau and its two vast deserts, the Dasht-e Kavir (more than 200,000 sq km) in the north and the Dasht-e Lut (more than 166,000 sq km) in the southeast. The deserts include occasional salt lakes and, in total, account for almost 25% of the country.
Think of Iran’s mountain ranges as being the foundations and support for a vast central plateau. Everything but the narrow coastal regions of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, and the Khuzestan plain near southern Iraq, is about 1000m above sea level or higher. This elevation, combined with the prevalence of mountains and the complete lack of major rivers, has had a huge effect on the development of Persian culture (Click here).
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SHAKING IRAN’S CONFIDENCE
To say that Iranians are anxious about earthquakes is quite the understatement. The country sits on dozens of seismic fault lines and every year scores of tremors of varying size rattle homes and gnaw away at nerves. When a major quake strikes, as it did in Bam in 2003 at a cost of more than 31,000 lives (see the boxed text), Iranians everywhere start speculating about who will be next.
Iran has had more than 20 major earthquakes (above 6 on the Richter scale) in the past century, and seismologists estimate that a large population centre will be hit by one every eight years. While the vast majority of seismic activity occurs along the Zagros Mountains, where the Eurasian and Arabian tectonic plates meet, it is in the desert regions of central Iran that the biggest movements are felt: Ferdows (1968; 7.3 on the Richter scale; up to 20,000 dead), Tabas (1978; 7.8; more than 1500 dead) and Bam (6.6) are all in this area.
However, the mountainous regions in the north are also susceptible, and Tehran reportedly has two major faults running directly