Kavir National Park is a protected ecological zone in northern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. It has an area of 4,000 square kilometers (1,500 mile²). The park is located 120 kilometers south of

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

and 100 kilometers east of

Qom Qom (also spelled as "Ghom", "Ghum", or "Qum") ( fa, قم ) is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. Qom is the capital of Qom Province. It is located to the south of Tehran. At the 2016 census, its pop ...

, and it sits on the western end of one of Iran's two major deserts, the

Dasht-e Kavir Dasht-e Kavir ( fa, دشت كوير, lit=Low Plains in classical Persian, from ''khwar'' (low), and ''dasht'' (plain, flatland)), also known as Kavir-e Namak () and the Great Salt Desert, is a large desert lying in the middle of the Iranian Plat ...

(Great Salt Desert).

Siahkuh Mangyshlak or Mangghyshlaq Peninsula ( kk, Маңғыстау түбегі, translit=Mañğystau tübegı; russian: Полуостров Мангышла́к, translit=Poluostrov Mangyshlák) is a large peninsula located in western Kazakhstan. It ...

(Black Mountain), a large, semi-circular rock outcropping sits in roughly the park's center. The park encompasses landscapes of

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

and

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate gras ...

s, and is sometimes known as "Little Africa" for its

safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an impor ...

-like wildlife, including native

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

s (''Capra aegagrus''),

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticate ...

(''Ovis orientalis''),Mohammadian,H. Mammals of Iran. Shabpareh Publishing Institute. Tehran, Iran.2005.. striped hyenas, Indian wolves, gazelles, the rare

Asiatic cheetah The Asiatic cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus venaticus'') is a critically endangered cheetah subspecies currently only surviving in Iran. It once occurred from the Arabian Peninsula and the Near East to the Caspian region, Transcaucasus, Kyzylkum ...

s, and the Persian leopards. Typically, the area receives around 150 millimeters (6 inches) of rain a year, most of which falls between November and May. The vegetation in the region is adapted to

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

and salty soils. To retain water and combat grazing by animals some plants grow leaves with thorns, much like thorn trees and bushes found in Africa desert landscapes. Namak Lake (Salt Lake) sits immediately outside the park boundaries. This is actually a

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is domin ...

, and water flows into the lake from the north via the Qom River, which also flows through the northern part of Kavir National Park. The Qom is one of the very few permanent rivers through the entire desert expanse in Iran. The Kavir National Park lies in the central province of Semnan and spans an area of 440,000 hectares.

Environment

Local authorities consider insufficient labor force, excessive use of land to graze cattle and illegal hunting as the main problems the park is faced with. Despite the vastness of the park, only 30 rangers work there under the most difficult conditions and for minimum wage. A more detailed look, however, reveals that there are graver problems than those mentioned by the authorities: The major oil projects currently being implemented in the park are believed will eventually turn the area into a salt land. The area is frequently used for military maneuvers. The park is sometimes host to car racing competitions, which, together with the military maneuvers, have led many unique animal species, such as the Persian zebras and the Asian cheetahs to flee the area as they do not feel secure anymore.

References

External links

* {{authority control National parks of Iran Biosphere reserves of Iran Deserts of Iran Geography of Semnan Province