Early Civilizations on the Iranian Plateau

Abstract

Persian civilization is one of the oldest in the world and was deeply influential in both West and South Asia. The core area of Persian civilization was the Iranian Plateau, but the Persian cultural sphere extends far beyond the plateau. Roughly speaking, it stretches from the Pamir Plateau and the Indus River in the east to the Syrian Desert in the west, from the Aral Sea and Syr Darya River in the northeast to the Caucasus Mountains in the northwest, and in the south, it reaches the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.