Everything you need to know about Iran
Explore Iran from the Caspian forests and Alborz mountains to Tabriz, Isfahan, Shiraz, Yazd and the southern shores. Learn its provinces, cities and waters, locate sixteen sights, and discover the histories, food and everyday life behind them. Practise Iranian Persian and begin Kurdish; many other languages also belong to the country’s communities.
Read it, then make it stick
Geography of Iran
Caspian forests, the Alborz and Zagros mountains, desert basins and two southern waters.
Know the shape of the country
Start with all 31 provinces, including Alborz and the three Khorasan provinces, then place 24 cities and find three rivers, Lake Urmia and three coastal waters. Zoom in around Tehran and Karaj. Boundaries and waters: Natural Earth, public domain. City coordinates are curated. These are generalised learning maps: river lines retain stretches near Iran with a small border allowance, Lake Urmia’s outline does not show its current shoreline, and sea targets do not show maritime claims. Province boundaries do not define ethnic communities.
Heritage places and landscapes
Essential · Ancient royal centre
Persepolis
Columns, monumental stairways and carved delegations preserve the setting of an Achaemenid royal centre developed under Darius I and his successors. Persepolis is distinct from the earlier capital of Pasargadae.
Locate sixteen places across Iran: Achaemenid capitals, Isfahan’s monumental square, Yazd’s earth-built streets, palaces, bazaars, water systems and southern landscapes. Present opening, access and security conditions require current official information. Essential marks the core heritage selection; worth a detour broadens the learning map. These labels describe the selection, not current travel safety. Select a pin to read about a place, then play the map and find them all.
Take Persian with you
Greetings and politeness
Hello, please, thank you, sorry: the ten openers everything else builds on.
Keep going one country deeper
When you have had your fill of Iran, the countries marked guide have a page like this one, and every other has maps of its own.
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