Aryans were nomadic people in search of better land when they entered the Iranian plateau toward the end of the second millennium B.C. The reason for their migration may have been that they exhausted the natural resources, such as croplands and pastures, in their homeland. A group of these immigrants settled along the western slopes of the Zagros Mountains and set the foundation for an emerging empire known in the West as the Achaemenid Empire. Most of Iran’s present-day nomads, still living on the slopes of these rugged mountains, are descendants of the original Aryans.

ACHAEMENID EMPIRE (550–330 B.C.)
The Achaemenid Empire, known also as the Persian Empire, became one of the greatest empires that the world had ever seen. It was established by Cyrus the Great, who defeated the powerful Babylonian Empire in 539 B.C. While in Babylon, Cyrus ordered the release of Jewish prisoners who had lived in captivity for many years. For this he became known as the “liberator of Jews,” as is revealed in Jewish history and as is documented in the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. The empire that Cyrus created reached its peak during the reign of Darius the Great (541–486 B.C.). Under Darius, the empire stretched from the western borders of modern India to the valley of the Nile River and included numerous satellite kingdoms.
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What we call Iran today is part of a much greater geographical area that once was home to a great culture and civilization. Today, traces of Iranian culture can be seen outside modern Iranian borders in places such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Caucasus, eastern Turkey, Iraq, and the southern Persian Gulf coastal region. These are all areas that historically were part of the Persian Empire and therefore were influenced by Persian culture. Iranians tend to refer to the realm of Iranian cultural influence as “Iran Zamin,” meaning, in the Persian language, “the Land of Iran.”

The term “Iran” is a derivative of the word “Aryan” (the noble). Iranians were a branch of Aryan tribes who entered Iran from central Asia sometime during the second millennium B.C. and settled in the western and south-central parts of what is now modern Iran.

While Aryans are believed to be the ancestors of modern Iranians, there were many other groups who lived in Iran before their arrival in the region. As a matter of fact, the history of the earliest sedentary cultures, based on existing archaeological sites, can be traced back some 18,000 years. And evidence suggests that humans occupied the region as long ago as 100,000 years.
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Iran is an arid country. It is characterized by shortage of water, higher evaporation than precipitation, low relative humidity, intense solar radiation during hot summer days, high daily and seasonal temperature ranges, torrential (but sporadic) spurts of precipitation, and damaging sand and dust storms. Through centuries of coping with these climatic conditions, Iranians learned to build their settlements in a way to minimize the impact of solar radiation and harmful and unpleasant winds, and to optimize shade, breeze, and water.

Traditional cities adopted a compact urban form that included narrow winding streets, buildings set close together, houses with courtyard ponds, covered bazaars, and wind capturing towers. The compact city form minimizes the empty space that can become a source of heat during the day and cold at night. The narrow winding streets provide shade for the passersby and protect them from sand and dust-laden storms. The courtyard ponds provide the surrounding rooms with cool air through evaporation. Wind towers harness cool air to cool off the rooms below. The covered bazaar protects shoppers from rain and cold and allows cool air to circulate.
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Iran is located between two major depressions, the Caspian Sea to the north and the Persian Gulf to the south. A series of mountains rising steeply from these depressions, along with other isolated mountain chains, form a high outer rim that encloses the interior basin.

This configuration provides Iran with an overall bowl-shaped topography that characterizes the country’s general physical appearance. The interior basin is known as the Iranian Plateau. According to geologists, the plateau is an ancient former seabed that took its present shape during the Quaternary period about 200,000 years ago. It was formed and shaped by the uplifting and folding effects of three giant plates pressing against each other.

The interacting plates are the Arabian Plate, the Eurasian Plate, and the Indian Plate. The continuous process of squeezing and pressing resulted in a considerable folding at the edges, and some folding in the interior, which eventually formed Iran’s present mountain ranges.
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Extending between 25 and 40 degrees north latitude and 44 and 63 degrees east longitude, Iran covers an area about twice the size of California, Oregon, and Washington combined. With an area of some 636,296 square miles (1,648,000 square kilometers), it is also three times the size of France.

Situated in the heart of the Middle East in southwest Asia, Iran is a bridge linking Asia and Europe. To the north, Iran shares borders with three newly independent republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. Prior to their independence the former Soviet Union controlled all three.

To the north, Iran also borders the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest landlocked body of water. Due to its being landlocked, the Caspian Sea is officially considered a lake rather than a sea; however, due to its substantially large size, historically
it has been referred to as a sea. To the south, Iran borders the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It shares its eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, its western border with Turkey and Iraq.
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