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Zagros Mountains
Iran's great folded range, a 1,600-km wall above the Persian Gulf
The Zagros Mountains run for some 1,600 kilometres along Iran's western flank, a vast system of parallel folds that looks, from the air, like rumpled cloth, ridge after ridge marching toward the Persian Gulf. They are among the most spectacular folded mountains on Earth, their crests holding snow into early summer above oak woodlands and high pastures. Beneath them lie some of the world's richest oil fields, and across them have moved the herding peoples whose way of life is woven into the range.
The Zagros are still rising, squeezed by the ongoing collision of the Arabian plate with Eurasia, which has crumpled thick layers of ancient sea-floor limestone into the long, regular folds that define the landscape. The highest peak is generally given as Mount Dena, at about 4,409 metres, though nearby summits run close. The range spans western Iran and reaches into northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey, and its geology, layered salt domes and folded rock, is the architecture that traps the region's great petroleum reserves.
The Zagros foothills hold some of the earliest evidence of farming and herding anywhere, a cradle of the Neolithic where wild grains and goats were first domesticated. Pastoral confederations such as the Bakhtiari and Qashqai still drive their flocks on long seasonal migrations between high and low country, one of the last great transhumant traditions. The mountains also gave rise to ancient powers, sheltering the Elamites and looking down on the heartland of the Persian empire that rose on the plateau behind them.