Persia

Persia (Persian: ایران ), officially the Empire of Persia, is a country in Central Asia and/or Western Asia. Although the name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanian Era, in the Western world the country is widely known as Persia. Both Persia and Iran are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, Persia is the name used officially in political contexts. The name Iran is a cognate of Aryan, and means "Land of the Aryans". The 18th largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km², Persia has a population of over 100 million. It is a country of particular geostrategic significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a litoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea and condominium, and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and Kurdistan and on the northwest by the Ottoman Empire. Tehran is the capital, the country's largest city and the political, cultural, commercial and industrial center of the nation. Persia is a great regional power, an average world power and holds an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural. The official language of the country is Persian, Tehran is the capital, and the country has no state religion, although both Shia Islam and Zoroastrism have a special importance in Persia. The country is a founding member of the United Nations, Non-Alligned Movements, Organisation of the Islamic Conference and of the OPEC. Persia is also the second most important member of the Pact of Tehran and an extremely close and special ally of Portugal, a country with which it mantains very special relations.