Chuzestan

خوزستان Chuzestan
	Location of the Khuzestan Province in Iran
Basic data
Country	Iran
Capital	Ahvaz
surface	64,055 km²
Residents	4,274,979 (2006 census)
density	67 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2	IR-10

31.458333333333 48.984444444444Coordinates: 31 ° 27 ' N , 48 ° 59' E

Chuzestan ( Persian خوزستان) or Chusistan is one of the 31 provinces of Iran . It lies on the northeastern bank of the Persian Gulf and its capital is Ahvaz . In the west, Khuzestan borders directly on Iraq .

4,274,979 people live in the province (2006 census). The province covers 64,055 square kilometers and has a population density of 67 people per square kilometer.

Administrative division

Khuzestan is divided into 26 administrative districts ( Shahrestan ):

politics

Chuzestan has 6 members for the Expert Council and 18 members for the Parliament ( Majles ).

population

Shiite Arabs make up almost the majority of the population in the south of the province, while Shiite Persians and related ethnic groups such as Bakhtiars and Lurs dominate in the north and east. There are also Kurds living in the north of the province , who were settled there by the government after the Iran-Iraq war . Chuzestan is also home to the Iranian Mandaeans .

geography

In the times of the Elamites , Babylonians and Medes , Chuzestan was developed through highly developed irrigation systems and was considered a granary of Mesopotamia and Persia until the Arabization in the 7th century .

In the southern Iranian lowlands between the Zāgros Mountains and the Persian Gulf, desert-like steppes predominate today , and larger swamps along the Karun , Kercha and Schatt al-Arab rivers .

economy

Due to abundant oil and natural gas deposits, Chuzestan once again became a region of global economic and geopolitical importance in the mid-20th century. From 1980 to 1988 the Iranian Khuzestan was the target of an Iraqi war of conquest, the First Gulf War . The province is still suffering from the consequences of the war and the devastation caused by the Iraqi Arab armies.

In Khuzestan Province, Iran's largest hydropower plants and dams are located on the Karun River near the city of Masjed Soleyman .