General History

Map of Iran

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Geography and Population of Iran

With an area of 1,648,000 square kilometers (636,000 sq mi), Iran ranks eighteenth in size among the countries of the world. Iran is about one-fifth the size of the continental United States, or slightly larger than the combined area of the western United States (Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Idaho).

Population: 76,923,300 (July 2010 est.).

Highest peak: Mount Damavand, 5,610 meters (18,406 ft).

Capital: Tehran.

Important Cities: Shiraz, Esfahan, Tabriz, Mashhad, Kerman, Qom, Ghazvin. Bushehr, Bandar Abbas.

Neighbors: Turkmenistan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Armenia, Caspian Sea (North), Turkey, Iraq (West), Afghanistan, Pakistan (East), Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea (South).

Iranian Origin: Indo-European.

Languages: Persian (Farsi) and its dialects, Turkish, Kurdish, and Balochi (both Kurdish and Balochi are versions of old Iranian languages).

Ethnic Groups: Persians, Azeris, Kurds, Turkmens, Balochis, Armenians, Assyrians, Jews, and Arabs.

Shia Islam (90% of the population).
Sunni Islam (8% of the population).
Christianity (Armenian and Assyrian Churches, estimated 500.000 Armenians live in Iran).
Zoroastrianism (estimated 20.000 Zoroastrians live in Iran). Judaism (estimated between 11.000 to 20.000 Jews live in Iran.)