Zagros Mountains

The Zagros Mountains stretch about 1,600 kilometers across Western Asia, beginning in northwestern Iran and running along much of the country's western border through northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. The range covers the southern Armenian highlands and the length of Iraqi Kurdistan and the western and southwestern Iranian plateau, terminating near the Strait of Hormuz, with its highest point, Mount Dena, reaching 4,409 meters. It formed from the collision of the Eurasian and Arabian tectonic plates, mainly during the Miocene epoch some 25 to 5 million years ago, a process that continues to uplift the entirely sedimentary, mostly limestone range today. Kurdish, Lur and Qashqai peoples farm and herd across the Zagros, and its western Iranian foothills hold significant oil reserves.