Situated in the heart of the Middle East, Iraq's total land area equals 168,868 square miles, making it slightly more than double the size of Idaho. Baghdad, the capital and largest city, lies in the east-central part of the country. Iraq possesses 36 miles of coastline along the Persian Gulf, which provides an important economic gateway for trade and transport. The majority of the Iraqi landscape consists of broad plains, which are disrupted by significant features such as mountains, a desert, two major rivers and vast swamplands.
The Zagros Mountains and their foothills rise from the surrounding countryside in the northern and northeastern part of the country along the Iranian and Turkish borders. The majority of this chain lies in Iran but it is the only substantial mountain range in Iraq. The Zagros are home to the nation's highest point, a yet-unnamed peak measured at 11,847 feet, with additional summits reaching above 9,000 feet. The mountains can experience heavy snowfall, and some peaks remain snow-covered for much of the year. In between the parallel limestone-and-shale ridges lie fertile valleys, many at elevations of 5,000 feet or more. The Zagros Mountains have for millennia formed boundaries between differing cultural and political entities, separating the Romans from the Parthians and the Persians from the Ottomans. Today ethnic Kurds inhabit this mountainous region, which is sometimes referred to as Kurdistan.
The Syrian Desert extends from Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia into eastern and southern Iraq. Sandy in the western part of the country, the desert becomes decreasingly less arid farther east into central Iraq, mellowing into a steppe on which grasses and shrubs proliferate. The driest areas receive, on average, less than 5 inches of rain per year. Like the Zagros Mountains, this great natural barrier historically divided different cultural and ethnic groups. In the 1970s, oil exploration began here. Today nomads still raise camels and cattle in the desert, the flat terrain of which is intermittently broken by fertile oases as well as oil pipelines.
Iraq is home to two historically important principal rivers --- the Tigris and Euphrates. The courses of these rivers are roughly parallel, with both flowing across central Iraq toward the southeast. The ancient Mesopotamians irrigated the land between these rivers, making agriculture possible in this arid environment and leading to the rise of a powerful civilization. The Tigris enters northern Iraq from Syria and Turkey, while farther west, the Euphrates flows out of Syria. The rivers merge in southeastern Iraq into the Shatt Al-Arab River, which continues southward for 120 miles, forming a segment of the Iranian border before emptying into the Persian Gulf.
Iraq's largest lake, Buhayrat ath Tharthar, or Lake Tharthar, lies in the center of the country about 75 miles northwest of Baghdad. It is fed by the south-flowing Tharthar River and connected to the Tigris River by a canal. Once a relatively small natural lake, humans turned Lake Tharthar into an immense and deep, 60-mile-long freshwater reservoir.
The Tigris, Euphrates and Shatt Al-Arab rivers form sizeable floodplains in southeastern Iraq as they approach the Persian Gulf. This low-lying region is characterized by reed-laden salt marshes. Yearly springtime floods inundate the area, forming enormous swamps which dry up somewhat in the summer, leaving behind scattered lakes connected by numerous channels. However, the Iraqi government has drained portions of these marshes as part of water-control projects, and upstream reservoirs such as Lake Tharthar and others in Syria and Turkey have to some extent mitigated the seasonal floods.
- Matt Cardy/Getty Images News/Getty Images