Iran has been in Persian literature the title of the country since the Sassanian era (224-651 BC) and became the official international title for the nation in 1935. In Western countries, Iran had been traditionally known as Persia. Iran located in southwest Asia in the Middle East region. Around 80 million people live in an area of 1,648,195 square kilometers.
Iran faces to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman on the south, Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the north, Afghanistan, and Pakistan on the East and Turkey and Iraq on the west.
Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges dominated the landscape of Iran. Two vast deserts namely Dasht-e Kavir and the Dasht-e Lut, two coastal areas of Persian Gulf , to the south with around 2045 km length, and the Caspian Sea, to the north around 765 km length, and several rivers which drain into the Persian Gulf, Caspian Sea or the desert areas of the Central Plateau shape the landscape of country.
The Alborz Range stretches parallel to the Caspian Sea in the north, and the highest peak is Damavand at 5,671 meters. The Zagros Range runs parallel to the Persian Gulf to the southeast, and the highest peak is Dena at 4,409 meters.
Iran’s woodland area is assessed at about 14,202,559 ha (equal to 9 percent of the country’s land area) and is divided into two regions including the Caspian forests (the Hyrcanyan forests) in the north which known as the oldest forests in the world and dry and semi-dry forests. The two deserts of the Central Iranian Plateau cover around 20% of Iran’s total land area.