Central Iranian Plateau

Iranian Plateau
Topographic map of the Iranian plateau connecting to Anatolia in the west and Hindu Kush and Himalaya in the east
Location	Western and Central Asia
Highest point  – elevation	Damavand 5610 m
Length	2000km
Area	3,700,000 square kilometres

The Persian Plateau, or Iranian Plateau, is a geological formation in Western Asia and Central Asia. It is the part of the Eurasian Plate wedged between the Arabian and Indian plates, situated between the Zagros Mountains to the west, the Caspian Sea and the Kopet Dag to the north, the Armenian Highlands and the Caucasus Mountains in the northwest, the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf to the south and the Indus River to the east in Pakistan.

As a historical region, it includes Parthia, Media, Persis, the heartlands of Iran and some of its recently lost territories. The Zagros Mountains form the plateau's western boundary, and its eastern slopes may be included in the term. The Encyclopædia Britannica excludes "lowland Khuzestan" explicitly and characterizes Elam as spanning "the region from the Mesopotamian plain to the Iranian Plateau".

From the Caspian in the northwest to Baluchistan in the south-east, the Iranian Plateau extends for close to 2,000 km. It encompasses the greater part of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan west of the Indus River on an area roughly outlined by the quadrangle formed by the cities of Tabriz, Shiraz, Peshawar and Quetta containing some 3,700,000 square kilometres (1,400,000 sq mi). In spite of being called a "plateau", it is far from flat but contains several mountain ranges, the highest peak being Damavand in the Alborz at 5610 m, and the Dasht-e Loot east of Kerman in Central Iran falling below 300 m.