Iranian plateau

The Iranian Highlands, also called Persian plateau and similar (Persian فلات ایران / Fałat -e Īrān ), is a mountainous region in Asia, between Mesopotamia in the west and Hindu Kush region in the east.

Demarcation and Name

The northern boundary is located in Central Asia, in the southern limit of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman to the field. The Highlands includes not only Iranian territory, but also parts of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan. The name is inspired by the early themselves as " Aryans " be designated, Iranian-speaking peoples - that branch of the Indo-Europeans, who from the 2nd millennium BC starting populated the region and cultivated. The term is often equated with the Iranian embossed, of the Encyclopaedia Iranica as "Iranian Cultural Continent " and referred to by some Iranisten as "Greater Iran " culture region that largely coincides with the Iranian plateau and beyond in particular to neighboring regions in Caucasus, engages in Central Asia and Anatolia.

Landscape and geology

The highland is formed from a tectonic plate ( Iranian plate ), as part of the Eurasian plate, wedged between the Arabian and the Indian plate. It belongs to alpidischen mountain belt, which passes to the north in the area of Kurdistan in the Anatolian highlands and the Caucasus region and in the East, in the Hindu Kush region, the Pamirs and the Himalayas continuation place. The actual fold mountains which define the highlands as Edge Mountains are the Elburz Mountains ( Kuh-e Alborz ) in the north, to the Caspian Sea and the Kopet Dag and aladaglar against the Karakum, the west and southwest the Zagros Mountains to the Euphratniederungen and the Persian Gulf. In the southeast, the highlands of the mountain ranges Kuh-e Jebal Barez, Kuh-e Birag, Kuh-e Taftan and cow -i Sultan Group and the sink Jaz Mirian goes into the mountainous region of Balochistan. The Highlands itself is not attributable to alpidischen orogeny, but rather to be seen in connection with the formation of the Urals and Hajar ( Omanzug ). Due to the active tectonics of the region is prone to earthquakes and shows recent volcanism.

The highlands is divided by the NW-SE trending side chains of the Zagros, the Kuhrudkette ( Kuh-e Rud ), Kuh-e Davaran and Kuh-e Banan. ( Hamum -i Mashkel Lut Desert / Dasht -e Lut Dasht -e Kavir, Fingered Stan, Dasht -e Margoh, Jaz Mirian, ) Between the mountain ranges and the Kuhrud the great deserts of the plateau.