Iran

Iran, long known as Persia, is a country in West Asia between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan border it on land.

Tehran is the capital, and Persian is the official and national language. Susa was first settled around 4400 BC and later served as a capital of Elam, whose Proto-Elamite script predates cuneiform. The Medes first united the land in the 7th century BC, and Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC; Darius I began building Persepolis. The Parthians and then the Sasanians ruled from the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD, and after the Arab conquest, completed by 654, Persian dynasties revived the Persian language and its learning.

The Safavids, ruling from 1501, reunited the country and made Shia Islam the state religion, laying the basis of the modern state. The Qajars came to power in the 1790s, and Reza Shah founded the Pahlavi dynasty in 1925. A referendum on 31 March 1979 turned the monarchy into an Islamic republic, in which a supreme leader holds the highest authority. Iran is divided into 31 provinces in five regions. It covers 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), and Mount Damavand, a volcano, reaches 5,610 m (18,406 ft).

Oil and natural gas drive the economy, cars are its second industry, and farms grow pistachios, dates, figs, walnuts and saffron, and Iran exports caviar. Persian carpets are woven in Tabriz, Kashan, Kerman and Isfahan, and Iranian cooking flavors its dishes with saffron, cardamom, dried lime and turmeric. Rumi, Ferdowsi, Hafez, Saadi and Omar Khayyam wrote poetry that shaped Persian literature. Persepolis, Pasargadae, Naghsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan and the Golestan Palace in Tehran are among its World Heritage Sites.