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1 results

  • 7 - HYDROGRAPHY

  • from PART 1 - THE LAND
  • Edited by W. B. Fisher
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Iran
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    01 October 1968, pp 264-279

  • Summary

    Iran's hydrographic problems are compounded by scanty and highly seasonal precipitation, and a surface configuration which tends to concentrate moisture on the periphery of the country. The water surplus of 15 to 70 in. in the highland rim of Iran is seasonal, pertaining only to the winter months. Iran is a desert country with no great rivers. Thus, the discharges of Iranian streams are small, not only as a consequence of seasonal aridity, but also because individual drainage basins nowhere attain great size. Only the Kārūn is navigable for any significant distance. The best-watered regions of Iran, outside of the highlands themselves, are the Caspian coastal plain and Khūzistān. The heart of Iran is a series of enclosed depressions, each having near its centre a large salt flat or salt marsh. The exterior slopes of Iran on the north and east also drain into endoreic basins, so that only one fourth of the entire country sends runoff to the sea.