The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1963, Síða 33

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
31
IIMRAM — some impressions
by L. B. KRISTJANSON
When a stranger arrives in Tehran,
the capital city of Iran, by air, he
enters a very beautiful, completely
modern terminal building. The drive
in from the airport is along a six-lane,
brightly lit thoroughfare, with several
enormous water fountains decorated
with multi-coloured lights. .
My family and I arrived in Tehran
at eleven o’clock at night and were
treated, by the pilot, to a few turns
around the city in order to see its
lights. Although it was my first visit
to Iran, it was a return home for my
wife, who was born and raised there.
This happy circumstance is important
because, I believe, it gave me an op-
portunity ito get much more out of
our stay and my work than would have
been possible otherwise.
What and where is Iran? It is a
country of some 20 million people
bordered by the U.S.S.R. and the
Caspian sea on the north, by Afghan-
istan and Pakistan on the east, by the
Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf on the
south, and by Turkey and Iraq on the
west. Its area is 628,000 square miles,
excluding Bahrain. This is slightly
smaller than Manitoba and Ontario
combined. Its national income is de-
rived primarily from agriculture with
a fairly substantial assist from oil ex-
ports. It has been a constitutional
monarchy since 1906, with upper and
lower houses of parliament. It has
been, however, a monarchy contin-
uously for almost 2500 years. Its polit-
ical significance over the centuries has
been its geographical position as a
buffer state between east and west
and more recently for its oil.
It is referred to as one of the develop-
ing or underdeveloped nations. This
means that the average “standard of
living” is lower than that of the so-
called developed nations. Put another
way, in Canada we have those who are
very wealthy and we have those who
are very poor. Between we have the
majority of Canadians. In Iran, there
exists a similar proportion of very
wealthy, and a much larger proportion
of very poor. The small group between
has a lower per capita income than
most Canadians.
Iran is circled by mountain ranges
with a very large plateau in the in-
terior. Most of the country suffers from
a lack of water. It is often described
as a cold desert. There is, however, a
narrow strip of land along the Caspian
coast which receives some 70 inches
of rainfall annually. The average for
(the country as a whole is approximate-
ly ten inches, and much of the central
desert, which is half the area of the
country, receives 3 to 5 inches. The
Caspian sea is at an elevation of 90
feet below sea level, whereas the cen-
tral plateau (or central desert) is at
an elevation of from 2000 to 3000 feet
above sea level. The capital city, Teh-
ran, is at the foot of the northern
mountain range (the Alburz Moun-
tains) some 4000 feet above sea level.
Like its elevation, the temperatures
vary widely—from 130° F. or more in
the summers of the extreme south to
well below zero in the winter at the
higher elevations. While we lived in
Tehran, the temperature ranged from
about 27° F. in winter to approximate-
ly 105° F. in the summer. We could,