69 Fun Facts About Iran

What is the capital and largest city of Iran?

Tehran became Iran's capital in the late 18th century; the city proper holds about 9 million people and its metropolitan area roughly 16 million.

By what name was Iran commonly known in the West until the 1930s?

Persia, from the Greek name for the Fars region, was the standard Western name until Reza Shah asked foreign governments to say Iran; in 1959 his son declared both names acceptable.

In which year did the shah ask foreign delegates to use the name 'Iran' in formal correspondence?

In 1935 Reza Shah's government asked foreign delegates to use Iran, the country's native name, instead of Persia, effective from that year's Nowruz.

The territory of present-day Iran was first unified in the 7th century BC under which people?

The Medes, an Iranian people of the northwest, built the first unified Iranian kingdom around 625 BC and went on to help Babylon destroy the Assyrian capital Nineveh in 612 BC.

Who founded the Achaemenid Empire, the largest Iranian state in history?

Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire around 550 BC by overthrowing the Medes, then conquered Lydia and Babylon; his son Cambyses II added Egypt.

The Cyrus Cylinder, discovered in the ruins of Babylon in 1879, is held by which institution?

The British Museum has held the Cyrus Cylinder since Hormuzd Rassam excavated it at Babylon in 1879; the Akkadian cuneiform text was buried as a foundation deposit after Cyrus took Babylon in 539 BC.

Which ancient city, settled around 4400 BC, was the capital of Elam and later an Achaemenid capital?

Susa, beside the modern town of Shush, was the Elamite capital for millennia; Darius the Great built a great palace there and made it an Achaemenid administrative capital.

The Achaemenid Royal Road ran from Susa to which city in Lydia?

Its first recorded mentions come from the reign of Darius the Great, who also improved the empire's road system.

Persepolis, the ceremonial Achaemenid capital, was captured and burned in 330 BC by whose army?

Alexander the Great burned Persepolis in 330 BC; ancient writers either call it revenge for Xerxes' burning of Athens or blame a drunken feast egged on by the courtesan Thaïs.

Who founded the Sasanian Empire in AD 224 after killing the last Parthian ruler?

Ardashir I killed the Parthian king Artabanus IV at the Battle of Hormozdgan in AD 224 and founded the Sasanian dynasty, which ruled Iran until the Arab conquest of the 7th century.

Which 16th-century dynasty re-unified Iran and made Twelver Shia Islam the state religion?

The Safavid dynasty, which took power in 1501, made Twelver Shia Islam Iran's state religion; its empire collapsed in 1722 after Afghan rebels besieged the capital.

Who founded the Pahlavi dynasty by ousting the last Qajar ruler in 1925?

Reza Shah, a former Cossack Brigade officer, deposed the last Qajar in 1925 and ruled until the Anglo-Soviet invasion of 1941 forced him to abdicate in favour of his son.

Which Iranian prime minister's oil nationalisation led to the Anglo-American coup of 1953?

Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalised the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1951; after the 1953 coup he was tried for treason, jailed for three years, then kept under house arrest until his death in 1967.

Who was Iran's first supreme leader after the 1979 revolution?

Ruhollah Khomeini became the first supreme leader when the Islamic Republic's constitution took effect in December 1979 and held the post until his death in June 1989.

For how many days were 52 American hostages held after the November 1979 embassy seizure?

The 52 hostages were held for 444 days, from 4 November 1979 until 20 January 1981, minutes after Ronald Reagan took the oath of office; the students called the embassy a 'den of spies'.

In which month and year did Iraq invade Iran, starting the eight-year Iran–Iraq War?

Iraq invaded on 22 September 1980, striking into oil-rich Khuzestan; the war ended in August 1988 when Khomeini accepted UN Resolution 598, likening it to drinking a cup of poison.

Which sea lies along Iran's northern border?

The Caspian Sea, the world's largest inland body of water, forms Iran's northern coast; the Hyrcanian forests along its southern shore became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019.

Mount Damavand, Iran's tallest peak at 5,610 m, holds which continental record?

Damavand is the highest volcano in Asia, a dormant stratovolcano about 66 km northeast of Tehran; in Persian myth the tyrant Zahhak lies chained inside it.

Mount Damavand lies in the middle of which mountain range?

Damavand rises in the central Alborz, the range that walls the Caspian lowlands off from the interior plateau; Tehran sits at its southern foot.

Which arid region of Iran has recorded the highest land surface temperature on Earth, 70.7 °C?

The Dasht-e Lut, whose name means 'plain of emptiness', registered 70.7 °C in a 2005 satellite reading and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016.

Which strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf separates Iran from Oman?

The Strait of Hormuz, about 39 km wide at its narrowest, links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman between Iran's coast and Oman's Musandam peninsula.

Into how many provinces is Iran divided?

Iran has 31 provinces (ostan); the creation of Alborz province out of Tehran province in 2010 brought the total to 31, and the provinces are grouped into five administrative regions.

Iran ranks 17th in the world by both area and what other measure?

Iran is the 17th-largest country by area, about 1.65 million km², and also ranks 17th by population, having passed 90 million people in the 2020s.

Which city is Iran's second most populous?

Mashhad, in the northeast, is Iran's second city with over 3 million people; its shrine of Imam Reza draws millions of Shia pilgrims every year.

Which currency replaced the qiran as Iran's official unit in 1932?

The rial replaced the qiran at par in 1932; it was nominally divided into 100 dinars, and Iranians have long quoted prices colloquially in tomans of 10 rials.

The Takbir is written along the edges of Iran's flag how many times?

The Takbir (Allahu Akbar) appears 22 times, 11 along the green band and 11 along the red, in white Kufic script; the flag took this form on 29 July 1980.

Nowruz, the Iranian new year, is timed to which astronomical event?

Nowruz begins at the exact moment of the spring equinox, which falls between 19 and 22 March; its roots lie in Zoroastrianism and it has been celebrated for over 3,000 years.

Zoroastrians worship which supreme, uncreated deity?

Ahura Mazda, the 'Wise Lord', is the uncreated creator god of Zoroastrianism, opposed by the destructive spirit Angra Mainyu; the faith's scripture is the Avesta.

The Shahnameh, the Persian national epic of some 50,000 couplets, was written by which poet?

Ferdowsi of Tus completed the Shahnameh around 1010 after some 33 years of work; at roughly 50,000 couplets it is the longest epic poem composed by a single poet.

The 14th-century lyric poet Hafez, whose Divan sits in many Iranian homes, came from which city?

Hafez was born and died in Shiraz, where his tomb garden, the Hafezieh, draws visitors daily; he is nicknamed Lisan al-Ghayb, the 'Tongue of the Unseen'.

The poet Rumi's name means "the Roman" because he settled in which Anatolian city?

Rumi's family fled Balkh ahead of the Mongols and settled in Konya, capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum; after his death his followers organised the Mevlevi order of whirling dervishes there.

Naqsh-e Jahan Square, built by the Safavids between 1598 and 1629, is at the heart of which city?

Isfahan, the Safavid capital from 1598, is praised in the proverb 'Isfahan is half the world'; Naqsh-e Jahan Square is ringed by the Shah Mosque, Ali Qapu Palace and Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque.

Chogha Zanbil in Iran is one of the few surviving examples outside Mesopotamia of what structure?

Chogha Zanbil is an Elamite ziggurat built about 1250 BC by King Untash-Napirisha near Susa; it is the best-preserved ziggurat in existence and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Golestan Palace in the capital was the official royal complex of which dynasty?

Golestan Palace was the Qajar dynasty's seat of government and royal residence in Tehran from the 1790s; its eight palatial buildings became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013.

How tall is the Milad Tower, the tallest tower in Iran, from base to antenna tip?

The Milad Tower in Tehran stands 435 m to its antenna tip; opened in 2008, its 12-storey head pod has a roof height of 315 m.

Iran produces roughly what share of the world's saffron?

Iran grows about 90% of the world's saffron, mostly in Khorasan in the northeast; the spice is the dried crimson stigmas of the Crocus sativus flower.

Which Persian Gulf island is Iran's largest?

Qeshm, about 1,500 km² and 135 km long, is the largest island in the Persian Gulf; it lies at the western mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, opposite Bandar Abbas.

Iran, the USA and which other country together grow 87% of the world's pistachios?

World production reached 1.4 million tonnes in 2024; Iran is also a top-five grower of dates, figs and walnuts.

Which sport is traditionally considered Iran's national sport?

Wrestling, above all freestyle wrestling, is regarded as Iran's national sport; the traditional form, koshti-e pahlevani or 'heroic wrestling', joined UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2010.

How many consecutive AFC Asian Cup titles did Iran win, starting in 1968?

Iran won three consecutive Asian Cups, in 1968, 1972 and 1976, the first and last of them on home soil in Tehran, beating Kuwait 1–0 in the 1976 final.

Iran's first-ever World Cup match win, in 1998, came against which team?

Iran beat the United States 2–1 in Lyon on 21 June 1998 for its first World Cup win, a politically charged match; later group-stage wins came against Morocco in 2018 and Wales in 2022.

Iran made its first FIFA World Cup appearance in which year?

Iran debuted at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, drawing 1–1 with Scotland but losing to the Netherlands and Peru; it withdrew from qualifying for 1982 and 1986 amid revolution and war.

In 1974 Iran became the first country in West Asia to host which multi-sport event?

Tehran hosted the 1974 Asian Games, the first held in West Asia; the Azadi Stadium, opened in 1971 under the name Aryamehr, was built for them and became Iran's national stadium.

Which Abbas Kiarostami film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1997?

Taste of Cherry, about a man driving around Tehran seeking someone to bury him after his planned suicide, shared the 1997 Palme d'Or with Shohei Imamura's The Eel.

Which Iranian director won Oscars for A Separation and The Salesman?

Asghar Farhadi won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film twice, for A Separation (2012) and The Salesman (2017); Time named him among its 100 most influential people in 2012.

Who in 2003 became the first Iranian to win a Nobel Prize, taking the Peace Prize?

Shirin Ebadi, a lawyer and one of Iran's first women judges, won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her human-rights work; she founded the Defenders of Human Rights Center and left Iran in 2009.

Which Iranian mathematician became the first woman to win the Fields Medal, in 2014?

Maryam Mirzakhani, a Stanford professor born in Tehran, received the 2014 Fields Medal for work on the geometry of Riemann surfaces; she was also the first Iranian to win it.

Iranian physicist Ali Javan co-invented which device in 1960?

Ali Javan, with William Bennett and Donald Herriott at Bell Labs, demonstrated the first gas laser, a helium–neon laser, in December 1960; it was also the first continuous-wave laser.

Iran placed its first domestically built satellite in orbit in 2009 using which launch vehicle?

The Safir ('Ambassador') rocket carried the Omid research satellite into orbit on 2 February 2009, around the 30th anniversary of the 1979 revolution, Iran's first orbital launch.

In which year did Iran's first nuclear power plant come online?

The Bushehr plant, begun under the Shah in 1975 and completed by Russia's Rosatom, first fed electricity into the national grid in September 2011.

According to a 2003 estimate, which is Iran's second-largest ethnic group after Persians?

Their language is the most-spoken minority tongue in the country; Persians were put at 51% and Azerbaijanis at 24%.

Roughly what proportion of Iranians adhere to Twelver Shia Islam, the state religion?

About 90–95% of Iranians are Shia Muslims, almost all Twelvers; Sunnis make up roughly 5–10%, while Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians hold reserved seats in parliament.

The tomb of Cyrus the Great stands at which ancient Achaemenid capital?

Pasargadae, founded by Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC as his capital, holds his gabled stone tomb; the site joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004.

Iran was the first country to introduce what economic policy nationally in autumn 2010?

Iran's 2010 subsidy reform paid every citizen a monthly cash transfer of 455,000 rials, then about US$45, widely described as the first national basic income; it replaced heavy fuel and bread subsidies.

Which two big cats disappeared from Iran entirely during the 20th century?

Iran lost its Asiatic lions and Caspian tigers during the 20th century: the last lion was recorded in 1942, the last tiger in the 1950s; the Asiatic cheetah survives only in Iran, a few dozen animals in its central deserts.

Which river, Iran's longest, flows past Ahvaz to the Shatt al-Arab?

The Karun, about 950 km long, rises in the Zagros and flows through Ahvaz to join the Shatt al-Arab; it is Iran's longest river and the only one navigable by large boats.

On 31 March 1979 Iranians voted in a referendum on switching from a monarchy to what?

The 1979 referendum posed a yes/no question on an Islamic republic and passed with a reported 98% yes; an elected assembly then drafted the constitution approved that December.

Which Median king joined Babylon's Nabopolassar to destroy Nineveh in 612 BC?

Cyaxares, who reorganised the Median army, allied with Nabopolassar of Babylon and sacked Nineveh in 612 BC; the Neo-Assyrian Empire was finished off at Harran by 609 BC.

Which conqueror ordered the massacre of some 70,000 people in Isfahan in 1387?

Timur sacked Isfahan in 1387 after the city rebelled against his tax collectors, reportedly piling some 70,000 heads into towers; his Timurid heirs held most of Iran until 1452.

Which Afghan dynasty's siege of Isfahan brought down the Safavid Empire in 1722?

Mahmud Hotak, a Ghilzai Pashtun from Kandahar, besieged Isfahan for six months in 1722 until Shah Sultan Husayn surrendered, ending effective Safavid rule.

The 1953 coup that toppled Mosaddegh was known to the CIA by what codename?

The CIA's TPAJAX, Operation Ajax, removed Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953 and installed General Fazlollah Zahedi as prime minister; Britain's MI6 knew the same plot as Operation Boot.

How many members sit in Iran's unicameral parliament, the Majles?

The Majles has 290 seats, up from 270 since the 2000 election; members serve four-year terms, with five seats reserved for Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian minorities.

How many members make up the Guardian Council that vets Iranian candidates and vetoes legislation?

The Guardian Council has 12 members: six clerics named directly by the Supreme Leader and six jurists nominated by the head of the judiciary, himself a Leader appointee, and approved by parliament.

Which body has the power to elect and, in theory, dismiss Iran's Supreme Leader?

The Assembly of Experts, a body of directly elected clerics serving eight-year terms, chose Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader in June 1989 and is constitutionally empowered to supervise and dismiss him.

Which reformist former health minister was elected president after Ebrahim Raisi's death in 2024?

Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon who served as health minister under Khatami, won the July 2024 runoff against Saeed Jalili after Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash that May.

Which airline's Flight 752 was shot down by the IRGC shortly after take-off from Tehran in January 2020?

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, a Boeing 737-800 bound for Kyiv, was hit by two IRGC missiles on 8 January 2020; all 176 people aboard were killed.

Roughly what share of the world's crude oil did Iran produce in 2023?

Iran pumped about 3.6 million barrels a day in 2023, roughly 4% of world crude output, earning some $36 billion from oil exports despite US sanctions.

Which Iranian-born entrepreneur became the first female space tourist, visiting the ISS in 2006?

Anousheh Ansari, sponsor of the Ansari X Prize, flew to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-9 in September 2006 as the first female space tourist and the first Iranian in space.

Iran's fertility rate fell from 6.5 children per woman to roughly what figure two decades later?

Iran's fertility rate plunged from about 6.5 children per woman in the mid-1980s to roughly 1.7 by the mid-2000s, one of the fastest declines ever recorded, driven by a state family-planning drive from 1989.