"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.
