This part of Iran consists of part of the Zagros Mountains and of the west of the Central Plateau beyond it. The more northerly mountains--the eastern half of the central Zagros--are parallel ranges with salt domes and salt marshes, useful for upland pastoralism. The southeastern mountains are harsh desert rock and sand dunes. Here are four of the five peaks over 4,000 meters; Hazar Mountain(2) is the tallest at 4,465 meters.
This part of the Central Plateau includes part of the Great Salt Desert(3)--northeastern Esfahan, and part of the Great Sand Desert(4)--northeastern Yazd and Kerman.
Along the border of Kerman with Sistan-e(5) Baluchestan is the large Jaz Murian Marsh(6).
In northeast Sistan-e Baluchestan the land falls down below 500 meters around Lake Hamun.
About nine in ten of the almost nine million people here speak dialects of Persian (Farsi or Parsi). However, dialect variation is so great that, were there national boundaries between the dialects, and were there not a unifying literary language, the dialects would be classed as distinct languages.
Almost one in ten speak Baluchi, another Iranian language, all of them in Baluchestan, the central and southern part of Sistan-e Baluchestan Province.
The only local city with over a million residents is Esfahan(7) and its metropolitan area approaches three million. It was the capital of the Seljuk Turk empire starting in the 11th century, and of the Persian empire in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Most of its famed architecture dates from this second period.
See also central and southern Iran generally
Early mainstream linguistic developments
Originally separate Iranian languages were spoken in the cities of Esfahan, Yazd and Kerman, but these gave way to Persian.
At some point in the past Baluchis probably migrated from nearer the Caspian sea southward to their present location. This assumption is based on the resemblance of their language to those along that sea.
Common early religious developments
northwest and north of Esfahan
northeast
northeast of Sistan
east of Baluchestan
southwest
west of Esfahan
(1) Formerly Persia.
(2) Mountain, transliterated from Persian, is 'kuh'.
(3) Dasht-e Kavir, transliterated from Persian.
(4) Dasht-e Lut, transliterated from Persian.
(5) '-e' is sometimes transliterated from Persian as 'va'.
(6) Marsh, transliterated from Persian, is 'hamun'.
(7) Formerly Aspadana. It is the capital of the province with its name.