PERSIA, per'sha or pi•r'zhh (Lat. Persia, Per sis, from Gk. Hepals. from OPers. Parsa, Pers. Par•.s, Ar. Fars. Persia). A native State of South western Asia, called by the inhabitants Iran, the name Persia (Farsistan) being applied only to a small province. It extends from latitude 25° N. (Ras Faisa, near the Baluchistan frontier) al most to latitude 40° N. (Aras River on the bor der of Transcaucasia). and from longitude 44° E. (Armenia) to longitude 63° E. (Baluchistan). A line extending northwest and southeast, nearly bisecting the country. is 1400 miles long. Its greatest north and south extent, from Las el Kull on the Strait of Ormuz to its most northern point on the frontier of Russian Turkestan, is 875 miles. The country is hounded on the north by Transcaucasia, the Caspian Sea, and Russian Turkestan, on the south by the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, on the east by Russian Turkestan, Afghanistan, and Baluehistan„ and on the west by Asiatic Turkey and the Persian Gulf. It is over one-fifth as large as the United States, ex cluding Alaska, having an area of about 642.000 square Ill iles.
Thema:win% Persia is an elevated tableland from 3000 to 5000 feet in general altitude, sink ing to the Caspian Sea and the plain of Turk estan in the north and to the Persian Gulf in the south, and embracing the western and larger portion of the great Iranian plateau. which in cludes Afghanistan and Baluchistan. To reach this plateau great mountain harriers must be crossed on all sides excepting in the east, where the tableland and mountains merge impercep tibly with those of Afghanistan and Baluchistan. On the other three sides great mountain ranges stretch het ween the interior plateau and the narrow plains which slope to the Caspian Sea on I he north, and the Persian Gulf on the south, and merge with the plains of Asiatic Turkey on the west. The plain of the Caspian presents a wonderful contrast to the colorless. waterless, and treeless expanse of the plateau to the south from which it is sef1arated by the Elburz Moun tains. It comprises the maritime provinces of Mazanderan and Milan, so rich in water that many swamps and lagoons breed miasma, and so abundantly covered with forests and under growth that it is often difficult to force a way through the dense vegetation. Furthermore, it possesses a degree of atmospheric humidity that is seldom found outside of the tropics. Most of the towns are among the forests on the lower slopes of the mountains. For purposes of agri culutre and fruit-raising this is the most favored part of Persia. Many large and small planta
tions have been cleared in the forests, and all the cultivated crops of Southern Europe. including the mulberry for silk manufacture, attain high perfection. This luxuriance of vegetable life is due to the vapor-charged clouds of the Caspian, which are brought south by the pre vailing winds, and, impinging the northern slopes of the Elburz, descend in mist and rain to the lowlands.
Along the southern maritime border the moun tains, low in elevation and extending east and west, often closely approach the sea, and the narrow plains between them and the ocean are dry and barren excepting in certain districts where the rainfall, supplemented by irrigation, suffices for agriculture. Nearly all the moun tains of Persia are bleakly sterile in aspect. The most imposing of the mountain ranges is the Elburz, which. continued eastward by the Kuren Dagh, Kopet Dagh, Ala Dagh. and Binalud Stretches like a mighty mountain wall along the entire northern border of Persia. The Elburz, from 10 to 30 miles south of the Caspian, may be crossed by a few passes or defiles, some of them at an elevation of over 8000 feet. Its upland val leys, with an average elevation of about 4000 feet, are dominated by peaks rising from 8000 to 11, 000 feet above the sea; and towering above them all is Demavend, a nearly extinct volcano, about 18,500 feet high, the culminating point of Persia. From its ice-filled crater, on a clear day, the eye may survey a panorama spread over 50,000 square miles, embracing the Caspian, the moun tain ranges of the north and west, and the dry expanse of the tableland with patches of green oases and the outlines of many towns. The wide mountain lands of Western Persia extend in many parallel ranges throughout the whole of that part of the country overlooking the valley of the Tigris and the Persian Gulf. Their trend is from northwest to southeast. They form the mountain barrier between Persia and Turkey and are known collectively as the Zagros Moun tains. Some of the peaks are snow-crowned most of the year, and Mount Alijuk, south of Ispahan, is 14.000 feet iu elevation. But the culminating range of these highlands is the Kuh Dinar, extending north of Shiraz, whose highest summit, the Kuh-i-Dena, is over 17,000 feet in ele vation, second only to Demavend. Islands along the east coast of the Persian Gulf are merely the partly submerged fragments of the coast ranges.