The western plateau, or table-land of Iran, rises generally about 5000 ft. above the sea; but in sonic parts to 7000 ft.; descending again, however, in the central and southern parts, where it spreads out into sandy and gravelly plains, to 2000 and 1200 ft. It has been divided into three sections: the plateau of Iran proper; the Median-Armenian alpine region; and the Anatolian table-land. The first division, or the plateau of Iran, has a mean altitude of about 3000 ft. Salt plains, with gravel and sand, form large portions of the surface, and mountain-walls on all sides hem it in. On the northern edge ascend the Persian mountains; on the e., the steep and lofty parallel chains of the Judo Persian boundary mountains; and on the s., the plateau, for 1000 m. along the Persian gulf and Arabian sea, is bounded by the wild terraced regions of Beloochistan and Farsistan. The second division, or the Median-Armenian alpine region, includes the mountainous regions of Armenia, Kurdistan, and Azerbijan. Here the table-land is compressed tulabout half its general width. From this plateau, of which a part is men tioned in Scripture as " the mountains of Ararat," rises the volcanic cone commonly styled Mt. Ararat, to the height of 17,212 ft. above the sea level. Anatolia, the third and most westerly division of the table-land, is bounded along the shores of the Black sea by mountains rising to 6000 or 7000 ft., and partly covered with forests; on the s.w., the Taurus chain of mountains beginning in the islands of Rhodes, Cos, etc., extends in several ramifications through a part of Asia Minor, runs in a single range along the coast of Karantania, and in the e. has an occasional height of 12,000 and 13,000 ft.
The western plateau, thus divided into three sections, is full of diversities of soil and scenery. A great part of the table-land of Iran (or Persia) is extremely barren and arid; which serves to explain the enthusiastic terms in which the Persian poets have spoken of the beautitul valleys found here and there among the mountains. The coasts of the Persian gulf arc sandy wastes. Between Irak and Khorassan, a desert of clay, covered with salt and nitre, varied only by patches of verdure here and there, occupies 27,000 sq,m., and joins the wide sandy desert of Kerman. A great part of Beloochistan is an arid plain, covered with red sand.
Besides these central masses, there are several detached mountain chains and plateaus. The Ural mountains, forming the land-boundary between Europe and Asia. and separated from the Altai chain by salt lakes, marshes, and deserts, are divided into three sections: the northern, central, and southern Ural. The second of these divisions is rich in minerals—gold, plating, magnetic iron, and copper. On the isthmus between the Black sea and the Caspian, the alpine ridges of the Caucasus reach a height of from 10,000 to 11,000 ft.. while individual peaks tower up to the gigantic height of 17,000 or 18,000 ft., as, in the still faintly volcanic peak of Elbruz (18,403 ft.) and Kasheek (16,523)—both. however, on the northern or European side of the main mass of the Caucasus. The high lands of Syria rise gradually from the neighboring deserts to the height of 10,000 ft. in Libanus and Antilibanus, and slope steeply in terraces down to the narrow coast-lands of Phrenicia and Palestine. The plateau of the Deccan, in India,
rises to an average height of from 1580 to 2000 ft., and is divided on the w. from the narrow coast-level of Malabar by the western Ghauts, 4700 ft.; on the e., from the broad level coast of Coromandel, by the eastern Ghauts. On the n., it is divided from the low plains of Hindustan by the Vindliya, and Malwah mountain chains; and, on the s., the Ghauts unite at the sources of the Cavery, and form the Neilgherry (or Blue mountains, 8760 ft. high), the loftiest in the peninsular portion of Hindustan. These slope steeply down to a low narrow plain, then rise again to a considerable height in the Aligherry range, sink into the sea at cape Comorin, and reappear in the group of Adam's Peak in Ceylon. The Malayan mountains, or chains of the eastern peninsula, may be regarded as offsets of the Siue-shan, and extend to tile extreme s. point of A., reappearing with volcanic peaks in the Sunda islands.
The six great Lolacinds of A. arts, 1st, The ,Siberian lowland in the n., which is by far the largest. It stretches from the northern declivities of the Altar and Ural mount ains to the shores of the Arctic sea, and is, for the most part, cold, gloomy, and barren. 2d, T hd Bucharian lowland, or the wild sterile waste between the Caspian sea and lake Aral, much of it beneath the level of the sea. It is composed to a large extent of gravelly soil. 3d, The Syrian and Arabian lowland, the s. of which is hot and arid, with almost no oases; but the n. is watered by the Tigris and Euphrates. 4th, The lowlands of Hindustan, comprising the great Indian desert, 400 in. broad, together with the vast and fertile plains of Bengal, generally called the valley of the Ganges, and ranking, per haps, next to China as a region of fertility. 5111. The lowlands, comprising the lone levels of the Burman empire, through which flows the Irrawaddy, and the rich regions of Cambodia and Siam. 6th, The Odium lowlands, commencing in the e. at Pekin, and extending as far s. as the tropic of Cancer, containing 210,000 sq.m.. or an area seven times the size of Lombardy. It is watered by a copious river system and numerous canals, and may be regarded as a vast garden, exceeding in productiveness all other parts of the world.
hydrography of A. displays as striking a variety as the structure of its land. The alpine regions send down in some directions torrents of water, which form rivers almost rivaling in magnificence those of America, and which flow for hun dreds of miles through plains of unsurpassed fertility. On the other hand, there are wide stretching tracts, like the deserts of Africa, destitute of water, and doomed to eternal sterility. Only one large sheet of water, lake Hamoon or Seistan (q.v.), refreshes the high table-land of Iran. The low steppe of Turan contains the Caspian sea (q.v.), the largest of all lakes, and lake Aral (q.v.). Iu the valley of Cashmere lies lake Liar, 40 m. in circumference, and the only considerable sheet of water in the Himalaya chain. At the northern base of this mountain-chain lake Palle is remarkable for its annular form, In Tibet and the Altai mountains, lakes are very numerous.