Iran

Iran, officially known as the Islam Republic of Iran, is a country located in the Middle Eastern region of Asia. Being one of the world’s largest countries, Iran is home to one of the world’s largest civilizations. The history of Iran has contributed significantly to the Middle East in terms of art, literature, philosophy, medicine, mathematics and astronomy. It still continues to be one of the largest contributors within the region in terms of economy and development.

Location

Iran is located in south west of the Asian sub-continent extending up to 1648000 square kilometers in area. In comparison to Alaska, Iran covers a slightly larger area, bounded by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the Caspian Sea on the north, while surrounded by Afghanistan and Pakistan at the east. The length of the land boundary of Iran is 5440 kilometers.

People

Most of the population in Iran is Islam which constitutes 90 per cent of it. Islam was introduced in Iran during 7^th century and now it is the official religion of the country. Rest of the religion consists of Kurds and Arabs, better known as Sunnis. Persian, also known as Farsi is the major language spoken by 60 per cent of the total population and written in Arabic.

Events

The Islamic calendar year is full with different festivals, starting with Moharram. Other festivals related to harvesting different crops and fruits, harvest festival of Grape is one of them, been held from a long period in Qazvin.

Weather

The weather in Iran is quite harsh with extreme heat in summer and cold in winter. The annual precipitation level in the steep deserts in the eastern part of Iran ranges below 300/12in. The southern and central part of Iran consists of mainly desert area where the precipitation level is very high. The summer season in Iran are warm and hot with constant sunshine whereas, the winters are unpredictable and keep changing from time to time. Some winters are mild and wet. Sometimes the winters are very cold when there are cold winds flowing from Siberia.