Mojtaba Khamenei | Biography, Father, & Iran britannica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from britannica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Iran, a mountainous, arid, and ethnically diverse country of southwestern Asia. The heart of the Persian empire of antiquity, Iran has long played an important role in the region as an imperial power and as a factor in superpower rivalries. Modern Iranian culture owes itself in part to a renaissance in the 8th century.
Iran, a mountainous, arid, and ethnically diverse country of southwestern Asia. Much of Iran consists of a central desert plateau, which is ringed on all sides by lofty mountain ranges that afford access to the interior through high passes. Most of the population lives on the edges of this forbidding, waterless waste. The capital is Tehrān, a sprawling, jumbled metropolis at the southern foot of the Elburz Mountains. Famed for its handsome architecture and verdant gardens, the city fell somewhat into disrepair in the decades following the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79, though efforts were later mounted to preserve historic buildings