Middle East and North Africa

Iran
Last reviewed: 19 March 2009

Country information

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GEOGRAPHY

Iran is located in the Middle East and is bounded to the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan and the Caspian Sea, to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and to the west by Iraq and Turkey. It is nearly seven times the size of the UK and twice the size of Turkey. The centre and east of the country is largely barren desert, punctuated by oases. There are mountainous regions in the west along the Turkish and Iraqi borders and in the north, where the Alborz Mountains rise steeply from a fertile belt around the Caspian Sea.