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Iranian plateau
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Iranian plateau (also known as the Persian plateau) is a geological formation in Southwest and Southern Asia. It is the part of the Eurasian Plate wedged between the Arabian and Indian plates, situated between the Zagros mountains to the west, the Caspian Sea and the Kopet Dag to the north, the Hormuz Straight and Arabian Sea to the south and and Hindu Kush to the east.
As a historical region, it includes Parthia, Media and eastern Persia, the heartlands of Greater Persia (mainly Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan).[1] The Zagros mountains form the plateau's western boundary, and its eastern slopes may be included in the term. The Encyclopedia Britannica excludes "lowland Khuzestan" explicitly[2] and characterizes Elam as spanning "the region from the Mesopotamian plain to the Iranian Plateau".[3]
From the Caspian in the northwest to Baluchistan in the south-east, the Iranian Plateau extends for close to 2,000 km. It encompasses the greater part of Iran and significant parts of both Pakistan and Afghanistan, an area roughly outlined by the quadrangle formed by the cities of Tabriz, Shiraz, Karachi and Kabul containing some 3.7 million square kilometers (1.5 million square miles). In spite of being called a "plateau", it is far from flat but contains several mountain ranges, the highest peak being Damavand in the Elbruz at 5610 m, and the Lut basin east of Kerman in Central Iran falling below 300 m.
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In geology, the plateau region of Iran primarily formed of the accretionary Gondwanan terranes between the Turan platform to the north and the Main Zagros Thrust, the suture zone between the northward moving Arabian plate and the Eurasian continent, is called the Iranian plateau. It is a geologically well-studied area because of general interest in continental collision zones, and because of Iran's long history of research in geology, particularly in economic geology (although Iran's major petroleum reserves are not in the plateau).
The Persian plateau in geology refers to a geographical area north of the great folded mountain belts resulting from the collision of the Arabian plate with the Eurasian plate. In this definition, Iranian plateau does not cover Kurdistan and southwestern Iran. It extends from East Azerbaijan Province in northwest of Iran (Persia) to southern Pakistan. It also includes smaller parts of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Its mountain ranges can be divided into five major sub-regions:[4]
- Northwest Iran Ranges
- Sabalan 4811 m. 15,784 ft.
- Elburz
- Damavand 5610 m. 18,406 ft.
- Central Iranian Plateau
- Kūh-e Hazār 4500 m. 14,764 ft.
- Kuh-e Jebal Barez
- Eastern Iranian Ranges
- Kopet Dag
- Kuh-e Siah Khvani 3314 m. 10,873 ft.
- Eshdeger Range
- 2920 m, 9580 ft.
- Kopet Dag
- Baluchistan
- Sikaram 4755 m. 15,600 ft.
- Kuh-e Taftan 3941 m, 12,930 ft.
- Zargun 3578 m, 11,739 ft.
Rivers and plains:
- Further information: Airyanem Vaejah
In the Bronze Age, Elam stretched across the Zagros mountains, connecting Mesopotamia and the Iranian Plateau. The kingdoms of Aratta known from cuneiform sources may have been located in the Central Iranian Plateau.
In classical antquity the region was called Arana (Āryānā), meaning "land of the Aryans", which in Middle Persian was Erān, which became Irān in Modern Persian. The Old Persian form of the word was Aryānām Xšaθra "Kingdom of the Aryans", the Avestan for was Airyanem Vaejah.
- Further information: Prehistoric archaeological sites in Iran
Archaeological sites and cultures of the Iranian plateau include:
- Central Iranian Plateau ("Jiroft culture")
- Zayandeh River Civilization
- Tappeh Sialk
- ^ Old Iranian Online, University of Texas College of Liberal Arts (retrieved 10 February 2007)
- ^ s.v. "ancient Iran"
- ^ s.v. "Elamite language"
- ^ peakbagger.com
- Y. Majidzadeh, Sialk III and the Pottery Sequence at Tepe Ghabristan. The Coherence of the Cultures of the Central Iranian Plateau, Iran 19, 1981, 141-46.
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