country bay of baku
___MASK60___ (, also , ; ' ), also known as Persia , officially the Islamic Republic of ___MASK60___ (' ), is a sovereign state in Western Asia . It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia , the " de facto " Nagorno - Karabakh Republic , and ___MASK52___ ; to the north by the Caspian Sea ; to the northeast by Turkmenistan ; to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan ; to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman ; and to the west by Turkey and Iraq . Comprising a land area of , it is the second - largest country in the Middle East and the 18th - largest in the world . With 82 . 8 million inhabitants , ___MASK60___ is the world ' s 17th - most - populous country . It is the only country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline . The country ' s central location in Eurasia and Western Asia , and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz , make it of great geostrategic importance . Tehran is the country ' s capital and largest city , as well as its leading economic center . Baku is the capital and largest city of ___MASK52___ , as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region . Baku is located below sea level , which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level . It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula , alongside the Bay of Baku . At the beginning of 2009 , Baku ' s urban population was estimated at just over two million people . Officially , about 25 percent of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku ' s metropolitan area . ___MASK13___ ( or ); formerly known as Turkmenia is a country in Central Asia , bordered by ___MASK23___ to the northwest , Uzbekistan to the north and east , Afghanistan to the southeast , Iran to the south and southwest , and the Caspian Sea to the west . Bay of Baku ( Baku Bay ) is a natural harbor of the Baku port and local yacht club , on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula and on the western shore of the Caspian Sea . The Absheron Peninsula is a peninsula in ___MASK52___ . It is host to Baku , the biggest and the most populous city of the country , and also the Baku metropolitan area , with its satellite cities Sumqayit and Khyrdalan . A yacht is a recreational boat or ship . The term originates from the Dutch word " jacht " " hunt ", and was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the ___MASK6___ . After its selection by Charles II of England as the vessel to carry him to England from the Netherlands for his restoration in 1660 it came to be used to mean a vessel used to convey important persons . ___MASK8___ ( from the  Rus '), also officially known as the Russian Federation , is a country in Eurasia . At , ___MASK8___ is the largest country in the world by surface area , covering more than one - eighth of the Earth ' s inhabited land area , and the ninth most populous , with over 140 million people at the end of March 2016 . The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern , about 77 % of the population live in European ___MASK8___ . ___MASK8___ ' s capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world , other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod and Samara . Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia . Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north , the ___MASK19___ to the west , and the Mediterranean Sea to the south . To the east and southeast , Europe is generally considered as separated from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains , the Ural River , the Caspian and Black Seas , and the waterways of the Turkish Straits . Yet the non - oceanic borders of Europe  a concept dating back to classical antiquity  are arbitrary . The primarily physiographic term " continent " as applied to Europe also incorporates cultural and political elements whose discontinuities are not always reflected by the continent ' s current overland boundaries . Earth , otherwise known as the ___MASK1___ , is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life . It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets . A yacht club is a sports club specifically related to yachting . A sea is a large body of salt water that is surrounded in whole or in part by land . More broadly , " the sea " is the interconnected system of Earth ' s salty , oceanic waters  considered as one global ocean or as several principal oceanic divisions . The sea moderates Earth ' s climate and has important roles in the water cycle , ___MASK95___ cycle , and nitrogen cycle . Although the sea has been traveled and explored since prehistory , the modern scientific study of the sea  oceanography  dates broadly to the British " Challenger " expedition of the 1870s . The sea is conventionally divided into up to five large oceanic sections  including the International Hydrographic Organization ' s four named oceans ( the Atlantic , Pacific , Indian , and Arctic ) and the Southern Ocean ; smaller , second - order sections , such as the Mediterranean , are known as " seas ". The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area , variously classed as the ___MASK1___ ' s largest lake or a full - fledged sea . It is in an endorheic basin ( it has no outflows ) located between Europe and Asia . It is bound by ___MASK23___ to the northeast , Russia to the northwest , ___MASK52___ to the west , Iran to the south , and Turkmenistan to the southeast . ___MASK52___ , officially the Republic of ___MASK52___ , is a country in the South Caucasus region , situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe . It is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east , Russia to the north , Georgia to the northwest , Armenia to the west and Iran to the south . The exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east , Iran to the south and west , while having an 8 km border with Turkey in the north west . ___MASK23___ ( " Qazaqstan ", " ___MASK23___ "), officially the Republic of ___MASK23___ (" Qazaqstan Respwblïkas " " Respublika ___MASK23___ "), is a transcontinental country in northern Central Asia and Eastern Europe . ___MASK23___ is the world ' s largest landlocked country , and the ninth largest in the world , with an area of . ___MASK23___ is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically , generating 60 % of the region ' s GDP , primarily through its oil / gas industry . It also has vast mineral resources .