“Persia” redirects here. For other uses, see Iran (disambiguation) and
Persia (disambiguation).
Abstract
Iran (Persian: ایران Irān [ʔiːˈɾɒːn] (About this soundlisten)),
also called Persia,[11] and officially the Islamic Republic of
Iran,[a] is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered to the
northwest by Armenia and Azerbaijan,[b] to the north by the Caspian
Sea, to the northeast by Turkmenistan, to the east by Afghanistan, to
the southeast by Pakistan, to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf
of Oman, and to the west by Turkey and Iraq. Iran covers an area of
1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), with a population of 85 million.[12]
It is the second-largest country in the Middle East (after Saudi
Arabia), the sixth-largest entirely in Asia, and its capital and largest
city is Tehran.