Iran

Iran is one of the most diverse countries in western Asia because it combines two mountain ranges that act as a barrier and a refuge, the Zagros and the Alborz, with two seas and two great interior deserts. On the northern slope of the Alborz, facing the Caspian, grow the Hyrcanian forests, a relict temperate rainforest tens of millions of years old that survived the glaciations and keeps trees absent from the rest of Eurasia. Inland, the Dasht-e Kavir and the Dasht-e Lut alternate between salt crusts, yardangs and dune fields, and in the Lut the highest surface temperatures on the planet have been recorded. The south descends to the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, with mangroves, reefs and turtle nesting beaches. Iran is home to the largest Persian leopard population in the world.