EXPLORE IRAN 12 KEY FACTS by Danielle Sovereign 12 Story Library
1 Iran Is a Land of Mountains and Deserts Iran is the second-largest country in the Middle East It is the eighteenth largest country in the world Its total area is 636,371 square miles 1,648,195 sq km Iran is nearly the size of the US state of Alaska Iran shares borders with Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan Iraq Turkey Armenia and Azerbaijan The Caspian Sea is to the north The Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman are to the south Iran has rugged mountain chains and large deserts The Zagros Mountains stretch from the northwest to the southeast The Alborz Mountains run along the edge of the Caspian Sea Iran’s highest peak is Mount Damavand It rises 18,934 feet 5,771 m Mountain chains surround basins on a central plateau To the east of the plateau are large deserts The country also has dense forests rainforests and jungles Most of Iran’s people live in the north and west There the land is fertile and the temperatures are moderate The central and eastern parts of Iran are the least populated Mount Damavand is a volcano that last erupted about 7,300 years ago 4
The one road that crosses the Lut Desert is 180 miles 290 km long THE HOTTEST SPOT ON EARTH Iran’s Lut Desert has dunes dust storms and strange rock formations Almost nothing grows there But insects reptiles and desert foxes are seen One day in 2005 the ground temperature reached 159.3 degrees Fahrenheit 70 7 C It was recorded by a NASA satellite The Lut is not the hottest spot on Earth every year But that is still the hottest ground temperature on record 30,000 Size in square miles 77,600 sq km of Dasht-e Kavir Iran’s largest desert Iran has mountain ranges basins deserts and forests Mount Damavand is the highest point Most people live in the northern and western parts of the country 5
