Location
Middle East.
Area : 1,648,000 sq km (636,296 sq miles).
Population : 68,727,000 (1998 estimate).
Capital : Tehran. Population : 10.1 million
Geography : Iran is located in the Middle East, bounded to the north by the CIS and the Caspian Sea, the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and the west by Iraq and Turkey.
The center and east of the country is largely barren undulating desert, punctured by Qantas (irrigation canals and tree eases, but there are mountainous regions in the west along the Turkish and Iraqi borders and in the north where the Alburz Mountains rise steeply from a fertile belt around the Caspian Sea.

Language
Persian (Farsi) is the most widely spoken language. Arabic is spoken in Khuzestan in the southwest, and Turkish in the northwest around Tabriz. English, French and (to a lesser extent) German are spoken by many businessmen and officials.

Religion
Predominantly Islamic; mostly Shi'ite, with a minority of Sunnis. Many Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians also live in Iran.