Konarak (, Balochi: کُنارک) is a city and the capital of Konarak County in Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran.

Climate

Demographics

Language and ethnicity

Like in nearby

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region o ...

province, the overwhelming majority of the city's inhabitants are ethnic Baloch who speak the

Balochi language Balochi (, romanized: ) is a Northwestern Iranian language, spoken primarily in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. In addition, there are speakers in Oman, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Turkmenistan, East Afr ...

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 28,685 in 6,044 households. The following census in 2011 counted 35,630 people in 7,975 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 43,258 people in 9,954 households. Konarak is on the western coast of Chabahar Bay, facing

Chabahar Port Chabahar Port () is a seaport located in Chabahar in southeastern Iran, on the Gulf of Oman. It serves as Iran's only oceanic port, and consists of two separate ports named ''Shahid Kalantari'' and ''Shahid Beheshti'', each of which has five ber ...

to the East, on the

Makran Makran (), also mentioned in some sources as ''Mecran'' and ''Mokrān'', is the southern coastal region of Balochistan. It is a semi-desert coastal strip in the Balochistan province in Pakistan and in Iran, along the coast of the Gulf of Oman. I ...

coast on the

Gulf of Oman The Gulf of Oman or Sea of Oman ( ''khalīj ʿumān''; ''daryâ-ye omân''), also known as Gulf of Makran or Sea of Makran ( ''khalīj makrān''; ''daryâ-ye makrān''), is a gulf in the Indian Ocean that connects the Arabian Sea with th ...

, about 50 km West of the Iran-Pakistan coastal border line. Konarak Airport is a military airbase (see below), which also has civilian flights.

Military

Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran The Iranian Armed Forces, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, are the combined military forces of Iran, comprising the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (''Artesh''), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (''Sepah'') and the Polic ...

(army, navy, air force) have established bases in Konarak for a long time — the construction of which started in the 1970s — before the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

, with the support of Western engineering, construction and logistics firms such as

Brown & Root KBR, Inc. (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) is a U.S. based company operating in fields of science, technology and engineering. KBR works in various markets including aerospace, defense, industrial and intelligence. After Halliburton acquired Dres ...

. The Iranian Navy also has a related base in Pasabandar, further east and very close to the border with Pakistan. The support vessel ''Konarak'' was named in the city's honour; the ''Konarak'' was destroyed in a 2020 accident. The 3rd Marine Brigade special forces unit of the

Iranian Navy The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN; ), also referred as the Iranian Navy (abbreviated NEDAJA; ), is the naval warfare service branch of Iran's regular military, the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (''Artesh''). It is one of Iran's two maritim ...

is stationed in Konarak

Notes

References

Cities in Sistan and Baluchestan province Populated places in Konarak County {{Konarak-geo-stub