James Baquet People often take for granted that that all Middle East Muslim countries speak Arabic. But in the case of Iran, one would be wrong. The language is Persian, which is also the nation’s historic demonym. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a culture stretching back to the fourth millennium B.C., making it one of the world’s oldest civilizations. Unified by the Medes in the seventh century B.C., it reached its greatest extent a century later under Cyrus the Great. At that time it stretched from India to eastern Europe. It fell to Alexander the Great two centuries later, but soon reemerged as the Parthian, then the Sasanian Empire. It became Muslim in the seventh century A.D., contributing to Islamic arts, literature and science. Western-aligned for nearly three decades in the mid-20th century, it has been a theocratic Islamic republic since 1979. Iran today is the world’s 18th-most-populous country, and the 17th-largest by area (second largest in the Middle East, after Saudi Arabia). The Caspian Sea lies at the center of its northern border. Moving clockwise, Turkmenistan lies to the northeast, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south, Iraq and Turkey to the west, and Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan lie to the northwest. Tehran is the capital and largest city. The Persian civilization has left a rich cultural legacy. Iran boasts 22 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, making the 11th-largest number in the world and the third-largest in Asia, after China with 52 and India with 36. One of these is listed as meeting the criteria for a natural site. The Lut Desert is the world’s 27th-largest, and part of the Afro-Asian belt of deserts that stretches from the Cape Verde islands off of West Africa to Mongolia near Beijing. All others are cultural, including an ancient Silk Road citadel, an inscription by Darius the Great (c. 550-486 B.C.), the Greek-named but Persian-built Persepolis (“the City of the Persians”), magnificent mosques, beautiful gardens and palaces, and an historic bazaar. Vocabulary: Which word above means: 1. part of an ocean or sea partly enclosed by land 2. a subgroup of Iranian peoples 3. fortress 4. in cooperation with 5. record cut into stone 6. Middle Eastern market or shopping quarter 7. government by religious leaders, considering God to be its head 8. standards for evaluating something 9. long, narrow region of land 10. area covered, especially the largest | 