THE COUNTRY OF NOBLES


The name of Iran comes from an ancient term "a-eer-ya-nem va-ee-jo" in Avesta,holy book of Zoroastrianism, meaning the land of the Aeers'. This term refers to a certain plateau which the Indo-Iranians, a branch of Aryans selected for their settlement. By passage of time, the term "Aeer" changed to "Er" and later to "Ir". "Er" or "Ir", in the ancient languages of the time, meant NOBLE. The official name of our country in the Sassanid period (400-600 A.D.) was Iranshatr or Iranshahr. "Shatr"or"Shahr" means country.Thus Iranshahr means the Country of The Nobles. Iran has an area of 1,648,000 km2, and 64,878,000 population is one of the most strategically located countries in the world. Just as a clue, Iran's population tops the total population of all other Persian Gulf countries,Iran occupies the entire 2,440 km eastern coast of the Persian Gulf that borders six other oil-rich Gulf states.

CIVILIZATION, HISTORY AND ECONOMY

The oldest known civilization in Iran is that of Elam in the 10th century B.C. and the Assyrians in the 8th century B.C. Other major Iranian civilizations are Media, Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanians. Unfortunately, most of the landmarks of these civilizations were demolished during the Arab and subsequent Mongol and Tatar invasions. The 16th century Safavids civilizations that has the most lasting number of monuments has inherited from both Persian civilization and its invaders. Many other dynasties and monarchies succeeded the country until the Pahlavi, that was once again demolished by the Islamic Revolution under the leadership of Imam Khomeini, in a way similar to its predecessors.

Iran has a long history of almost 7,000 years since the Aryans emigrated to the Iran Heights. Aryans gave their name to this land and called it "land of Aryans" or Iran. Achaemenid appeared in the 550 B.C. was the first unified dynasty and until it was conquered by Alexander of Macedonia (Eskandar e Maghdooni) in 330 B.C., Iran prospered as "The Great Persian Empire" for more than two centuries. Contributions of the Achaemenians to the worlds culture are numerous. Cyrus (Xerxes) The Great (550 B.C.) was the first emperor who conquered Elam and gave Jews freedom. He was also the first one who declared and practiced human rights. In the Great Persia Empire from East China to Libya, many nations were coexisting and all were declared free to pactice their own religion and follow their own traditions and customs. Daryush The Great (500 B.C.) was the first emperor who commited to digging the ancient Suez Channel, joining the Red and Mediteranian sea. There are many landmarks left from the Achaemenian period mostly in Persepolis and Naghshe-rostam near present Shiraz.

Iran is very rich in terms of natural resources. Almost one-tenth of the world's oil and one-fifth of the world's natural gas reserve are in Iran. Iran's total oil reserves stands at 92.9 billion barrels. At the present extraction rate, it will last 70 years. Iran is ranked second in the world in view of its natural gas reserve, totaling 20.7 trillion cubic meters, and at the current daily consumption rate, it will take Iran 360 years to exhaust it! Besides natural resources, unlike many other Middle Eastern countries, Iran possesses strong agricultural and service sectors. These together with a population of more than 60 million make Iran a substantial domestic power from the political and economical point of view.