Iran is an eternal reality spanning along a timeline beginning from the earliest moments of man's life on Earth and in a place, as beautiful as the colorful Persian carpet, that links the heart of Asia to the Western wing of this vast continent.

Geography
Numerous mountains and vast plains have given rise to various ecological attributes in Iran. It is mild and wet in the north, cold and dry in the west, mild and dry to hot and dry in central regions; and hot in the south. A large part of the country made of desert lands, the biggest of which are Dasht-i Kavir and Dasht-i Lut in central and southeastern Iran. Annual precipitation in desert regions like Yazd is about 50 mm, while it is more than 2000 mm in Anzali in northern region.
Iran has a 630 kilometer long sea border in the north at the Caspian, the world's largest lake, and another 1880 kilometer long sea border in the south at the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. Iran has 7 neighboring countries to her west, north and east.

History
The Iranian civilization was founded 6000 years ago in the southwestern part of the Iran of today. The largest of the Persian empires were those of the Achaemenians, the Parthians and the Sassanids. Some of the ruled in a great part of the Asian continent for over 450 years. Since then there have been over 20 ruling dynasties in Iran. The biggest events that shaped Iranian history have been the arrival of Islam to Iran 1400 years ago and the invasion by Mongols 800 years ago. Nevertheless, Iran never lost her strength and splendour. In 1979 monarchy was abolished in Iran and since then the country's government has been an Islamic Republic whose affairs are run independently and with the people's vote.

Population
Iran has a population of more than 65 million people with less than half of it under 14 years of age. The rate population growth has recently fallen to 1.3%. In the current academic year, Iran has about 20 million students. As far as employment is concerned, 29% of population are working in agriculture sector, 25% in Industrial sector and the rest are in the services sector. According to latest sensus about 99.5% of the population are moslem while the total number of religious minorities in Iran is about 270 thousand, of which 79 thousand are Christian, 28 thousand Zoroastrian, 13 thousand Jewish and the rest believe in other religions.

Government
Iran's government is an Islamic Republic with a constitutional law that includes 175 clauses. According to the constitutional law, the highest ranking decision making position in the country is that of the leader who is elected either directly by the people or by an Assembly of Experts. After the leader, an elected president is the country's highest ranking official. The president implements the constitution and chairs the executive body. There is also a parliament with 270 elected MP's including those who represent religious minorities like Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews.

Economic & Industry
Iran produces various types of agricultural products like wheat, rice, potato, sugar beet, cotton, etc. Products such as date, pistachio, fresh and dried fruits, caviar, flowers and medical plants are among the country's agricultural exports.
Thanks to her geographical location, Iran has rich mineral resources of copper, aluminium, lead, chromite, etc. In recent years extensive efforts have been undertaken for exploration and utilization of mines and facilitating the export of mineral products.
Industrial products in Iran include various types of vehicles, home appliances, petrochemical products and iron of which a large amount is exported. Iranian handicraft including rugs and carpets, tapestry, miniature, ceramic and so on are produced for both domestic use and export while being also readily available for tourists. The main figure in Iran's export is that of oil. Iran is an OPEC member. This country is one of the world's largest oil tanker fleets that carries her crude and refined oil worldwide. Iran's oil industry became independent in 1950. In recent years Iran has been exploring, extracting, refining and shipping her oil independent of technological assistance by other countries.
With a natural gas resource about 17 thousand billion cubic feet, Iran is one of the world's biggest gas-rich countries. During recent years gas supply to cities houses and industries has had a marked growth.

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