Tehran in the context of "1974 Asian Games"

Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the northeast, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. With a population of over 90 million, Iran ranks 17th globally in both geographic size and population and is the sixth-largest country in Asia. Iran is divided into five regions with 31 provinces. Tehran is the nation's capital, largest city, and financial center.

Home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, most of Iran was first united as a nation by the Medes under Cyaxares in the 7th century BC and reached its territorial height in the 6th century BC, when Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire. Alexander the Great conquered the empire in the 4th century BC. An Iranian rebellion in the 3rd century BC established the Parthian Empire, which later liberated the country. In the 3rd century CE, the Parthians were succeeded by the Sasanian Empire, who oversaw a golden age in the history of Iranian civilization. During this period, ancient Iran saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanization, religion, and administration. Once a center for Zoroastrianism, the 7th century CE Muslim conquest brought about the Islamization of Iran. Innovations in literature, philosophy, mathematics, medicine, astronomy and art were renewed during the Islamic Golden Age and Iranian Intermezzo, a period during which Iranian Muslim dynasties ended Arab rule and revived the Persian language. This era was followed by Seljuk and Khwarazmian rule, Mongol conquests and the Timurid Renaissance from the 11th to 14th centuries.

Isfahan or Esfahan (Persian: اصفهان [esfæˈhɒːn] ) is a city in the Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located 440 kilometres (270 miles) south of Tehran. The city has a population of approximately 2,237,990, making it the fourth-most populous city in Iran, after Tehran, Mashhad and Karaj, and the second-largest metropolitan area.

Isfahan is located at the intersection of the two principal routes that traverse Iran, north–south and east–west. Isfahan flourished between the 9th and 18th centuries. Under the Safavid Empire, Isfahan became the capital of Iran, for the second time in its history, under Abbas the Great. It is known for its Persian–Muslim architecture, grand boulevards, covered bridges, palaces, tiled mosques, and minarets. Isfahan also has many historical buildings, monuments, paintings, and artifacts. The fame of Isfahan led to the Persian proverb Esfahān nesf-e-jahān ast ('Isfahan is half the world'). Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan is one of the largest city squares in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which have a linear character and may run through an urban area instead of around it. In essence, a green belt is an invisible line designating a border around a certain area, preventing development of the area and allowing wildlife to return and be established.

The more general term in the United States is green space or greenspace, which may be a very small area such as a park.

Sulejman Pasha Bargjini (also known in Albanian: Sylejman Pashë Mulleti, Turkish: Berkinzâde Süleyman Paşa) was an Ottoman Albanian general, nobleman, Governor of the Ottoman Empire and founder of the present-day Albanian capital of Tirana. He was originally from Bargjin, but he settled in the village of Mullet (present-day Albania) and probably served as a Janissary, he was given the title Pasha. He had fought for the Ottomans against the Safavids in Persia. After that he had built a mosque (the Sylejman Pasha Mosque), a bakery and a hammam (Islamic sauna). He founded the settlement of Tirana, now the capital of Albania, in 1614 as an oriental-style town of those times. According to some local legends, he named the town he founded after Tehran, the capital of Persia (nowadays Iran). This, however, is a folk etymology without basis in fact, as Tirana was already mentioned in Venetian documents as early as 1418.

With Sulejman's foundations, Tirana soon became the center of Albanian art, culture and religion (especially with the Spread of Islam and the Bektashi Sufism), it became famous because of its strategic position at the heart of Albania. During the harshest decades of Albania’s Communist era, the regime didn’t just seek to destroy physical monuments—it targeted bloodlines. Sulejman Pasha Bargjini, once honored as a founding figure, became a symbol of everything the regime sought to uproot: nobility, religion, legacy. His name, once carved into Tirana’s identity, was blacklisted. His family was systematically erased from official records, stripped of titles, land, and dignity. They were branded with the stigma of a “feudal past,” and became targets of suspicion, silence, and surveillance. His resting place, the Suleyman Pasha Tomb, got destroyed by the Communist government.

The Treaty of Turkmenchay was an agreement between Qajar Iran and the Russian Empire, which concluded the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828). It was second of the series of treaties (the first was the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the last, the 1881 Treaty of Akhal) signed between Qajar Iran and Imperial Russia that forced Iran to cede or recognize Russian influence over the territories that formerly were part of Iran.

The treaty was signed on 22 February 1828 (5 Sha'ban 1243) in Torkamanchay (a village between Tabriz and Tehran). It made Iran cede the control of several areas in the South Caucasus to Russia: the Erivan Khanate, the Nakhchivan Khanate and the remainder of the Talysh Khanate. The boundary between Russia and Iran was set at the Aras River. These territories are now Armenia, the south of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan and Iğdır Province (now part of Turkey).

A synagogue, or synagog also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It serves as a house of prayer (with a main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or ceremonies such as weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, choir performances, and children's plays. Synagogues often also contain study rooms, social halls, administrative and charitable offices, classrooms for religious and Hebrew studies, and spaces for community gatherings. They frequently display commemorative, historic, or modern artwork alongside items of Jewish historical significance or exhibits about the synagogue itself.

Synagogues are buildings used for Jewish prayer, study, assembly, and reading of the Torah. The Torah (Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses) is traditionally read in its entirety over a period of a year in weekly portions during services, or in some synagogues on a triennial cycle. However, the edifice of a synagogue as such is not essential for holding Jewish worship. Halakha (Jewish law from the Mishnah – the "Oral Torah") states that communal Jewish worship can be carried out wherever a minyan, a group of at least 10 Jewish adult men, is assembled, often (but not necessarily) led by a rabbi. This minyan is the essence of Jewish communal worship, which can also be conducted alone or with fewer than ten people, but that excludes certain prayers as well as communal Torah reading. In terms of its specific ritual and liturgical functions, the synagogue does not replace the long-destroyed Temple in Jerusalem.

Mashhad (Persian: مشهد [mæʃˈhæd] ), historically also known as Mashad (/məˈʃæd/ mə-SHAD), Meshhed, or Meshed, is the second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the north-east of the country about 900 kilometres (560 miles) from Tehran. In the Central District of Mashhad County, it serves as the capital of Razavi Khorasan province, the county, and the district. It has a population of about 3,400,000 (2016 census), which includes the areas of Mashhad Taman and Torqabeh.

Throughout its history, Mashhad has been governed by different ethnic groups. It was previously a small village, which by the 9th century was known as Sanabad, and was located—along with Tus and other villages—on the ancient Silk Road connecting them with Merv to the east. It would eventually outgrow all its surrounding villages. It gained its current name, meaning "place of martyrdom", in reference to the Imam Reza shrine, where the eighth Shia Imam, Ali al-Rida, is buried. The Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid is also buried within the same shrine. The shrine is an important place of pilgrimage, visited by 2,5 millions each year in what is often described as "the holiest city in Iran".

Karaj (Persian: کرج; pronounced [kæˈɾædʒ] ) is a city in the Central District of Karaj County, Alborz province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. Earliest evidence of inhabitation in Karaj can be dated to the Bronze Age at Tepe Khurvin. The city was developed under the rule of the Safavid and Qajar Empire and is home to historical buildings and memorials from those eras. This city has a unique climate due to access to natural resources such as many trees, rivers, and green plains. After Tehran, Karaj is the largest immigrant-friendly city in Iran, so it has been nicknamed "Little Iran."

Although the county hosts a population around 1.97 million, as recorded in the 2016 census, most of the 1,419 km (548 sq mi) county is rugged mountain. The urban area is the fourth-largest in Iran, after Tehran, Mashhad, and Isfahan. Eshtehard County and Fardis County were split off from Karaj County since the previous census.