"My fathers' empire reaches southwards as far as where it is too hot for men to live, and northwards to where it is too cold" Cyrus

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

Iran's role in history, dictated by its geography, has been that of a land-bridge between Europe, Asia and Mediterranean world on the one hand, and between Central Asia and South-East Asia on the other. The many waves of invasions which have swept across Iran in the course of the centuries have led to a dilution of the original Aryan Stock.

As Cyrus the Younger rightly observed over two thousand years ago: "My father's empire reaches southwards as far as where it is too hot for men to live, and northwards to where it is too cold" Their terrain of the central plateau is characterized by wide plains traversed by mountain ranges. The tow principal mountain ranges, the Zagros and the Elburz, diverge from a point of intersection in the Caucasus mountains; the former crosses Iran in a south-easterly direction toward the Persian Gulf.