About Iran ایران
About the country Iran ایران
Persian calender is now year 1399 (western 2020)
Iran is a huge country, meeting two seas, the Caspain and the Arabian seas. The ancient name of Iran is Persia. For at least 5000 years humans have lived here. And today more than 75 million people live in Iran. We who live here are called Persians and we are not the same as the arabs that sorrounds us. Total size in squarekilometres of Iran is 1 648 000. That almost three times larger than France.
Outside Iran we are famous for our hospitality , our beatiful rugs, pistacios and safron. We also make a lot of oil for other countries. And wine was invented here. For instance we have the city of Shiraz.
The main holiday is the Persian new year.
We have our own calendar; the Persian calendar. According to that we are now in the year of 1399 (and the western part of the world is at 2020). Our year 0 was when the prophet Muhammed emigrated from Mecca to Medina. The first day of the year is in the spring when the hours of daylight are the same as hours of darkness – usually this is 21 of March in the Western calendar.
Most Iranis are Muslim. So called shiits. However all religions are allowed and practised in Iran.
In the 7th century BC the king of one of the Persian tribes, Achaemenes, created a unified state in southern Iran, giving his name to what would become the First Persian Empire, that of the Achaemenids. By the time his 21-year-old great-grandson Cyrus II ascended the throne in 559 BC, Persia was clearly a state on the up. Within 20 years it would be the greatest empire the world had known.
One of our oldest city is Persepolis. That is one of the oldest cities and civilisations in the world. It was also here that the origin of human rights, equality between humans, was created.
We have a huge verity of Climate as we have high mountains with snow and also tropical parts and deserts. The summer gets so incredibly warm, but you can cool off in the sea or in the rivers.
In Iran the coast line is vast, bordering to three seas; The Caspian sea, Persian Gulf and Arabian sea. The biggest lake is Urmia. The highest mountain is Demavend. It measures 5610 meters. Higher than any mountain in Europe. The longest river is Bahu Kalat River.
Never mix a Persian with an Arab – thus we find very insulting. It is like saying all Americans are Indians. Or all Europeans are Romans.
Teheran is the capital, in comparison to many other cities in Iran this is a very young city
