Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
for travellers down the ages. Here, where temperatures regu-
larly top 50°C in summer, dozens of subtly different date
palms thrive, often sharing space with hardy pomegranate
trees and modest fields of cucumber and melon; Garmeh
(
Click here
)
and the villages around are classic examples.
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Qeshm Geological Park
N
26° 37' 0.46”, E 55° 29'
29.43”
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Zagros Mountains
N 30°
15' 4.30”, E 51° 57' 21.35”
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Dasht-e Kavir mountains
N 33° 50' 47.00”, E 52° 34'
53.26”
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Dasht-e Lut sand dunes
N
30° 5' 50.34”, E 59° 16'
48.39”
SHAKING IRAN'S CONFIDENCE
To say that Iranians are anxious about earthquakes is quite the understatement. The country sits on dozens of seis-
mic fault lines and every year scores of tremors rattle homes and gnaw away at nerves. When a major quake strikes,
as it did in Bam in 2003 at a cost of more than 31,000 lives, Iranians everywhere start speculating about who will be
next.
Iran has had more than 20 major earthquakes (above 6 on the Richter scale) in the past century, and seismologists
estimate that a large population centre will be hit every eight years. While the vast majority of seismic activity oc-
curs along the Zagros Mountains, where the Eurasian and Arabian tectonic plates meet, it is in the desert regions of
central Iran that the biggest movements are felt: Ferdows (1968; 7.3 on the Richter scale; up to 20,000 dead), Tabas
(1978; 7.8; more than 1500 dead) and Bam (6.6) are all in this area.
However, the mountainous regions in the north are also susceptible, and Tehran reportedly has two major faults
running directly beneath it. In the wake of the Bam disaster there was much speculation in Tehran about what kind
of hell would be unleashed if a large quake rocks the capital. Building standards are poor (and poorly enforced) and
a government report in 2004 stated that of the 15 million homes in Iran, 7.2 million are vulnerable to a major earth-
quake. Sobering indeed.
People of the Land
Think of Iran's mountain ranges as the foundations of a vast central plateau. Everything
but the narrow coastal regions of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, and the Khuzestan
plain near southern Iraq, is about 1000m above sea level or higher. This elevation, the
mountains and the lack of rivers have had a direct effect on the development of Persian
culture.
Unlike many ancient civilisations, such as those in Egypt and Mesopotamia, Persian
settlements did not develop around major rivers. The longest and sole navigable river is
