Iran cities

 

 Iran cities

 

Kindly prepare a list of the fifteen most populous cities in Iran, listed in descending order of population, the English name first, then in a second column the English pronunciation, with stress boldfaced, then in a third column the place's relationship with Tehran (i.e., 40 km NNW), and then in a fourth column the location of the place otherwise (such as on a particular coast or border or river or in a particular desert or mountain range).

Using widely cited recent urban-population estimates, the fifteen largest Iranian urban areas are listed below in descending order.

City	English pronunciation (stress in bold)	Relative to Tehran	Geographic setting
Tehran	tehr-AHN	Reference point	Southern foot of the Alborz Mountains
Mashhad	mash-HAD	~740 km E	Northeastern Iran, Kashaf River valley, near borders with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan
Karaj	kah-RAHJ	~40 km WNW	At the foot of the Alborz Mountains, immediately west of Tehran
Isfahan	iss-fah-HAHN	~340 km S	Central Iranian Plateau on the Zayandeh Rud River
Ahvaz (Ahwaz)	ah-VAHZ	~550 km SW	On the Karun River in the Khuzestan plain, not far from the Iraqi border
Tabriz	tah-BREEZ	~530 km WNW	Northwestern Iran, basin between volcanic mountain ranges, near Armenia and Azerbaijan
Shiraz	shee-RAHZ	~690 km S	Zagros Mountains region of Fars Province
Kermanshah	ker-man-SHAH	~410 km W	Western Iran in the Zagros Mountains, near Iraq
Qom	KOHM	~125 km SSW	Edge of the Dasht-e Kavir (Great Salt Desert)
Urmia (Orumiyeh)	oor-MEE-yah	~600 km WNW	West of Lake Urmia, near the Turkish border
Rasht	RASHT	~240 km NW	Near the Caspian Sea coast in the lush Gilan lowlands
Zahedan	zah-heh-DAHN	~1,120 km ESE	Arid southeast, near Pakistan and Afghanistan
Kerman	ker-MAHN	~800 km SE	Southeastern Iranian Plateau, on the edge of the Lut Desert
Hamadan (Hamedan)	hah-meh-DAHN	~270 km WSW	Foothills of the Zagros Mountains, near Mount Alvand
Yazd	YAZD	~510 km SE	Central desert oasis between the Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts

A few pronunciation notes:

• Persian stress generally falls on the final syllable, which is why names such as Mashhad, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Kermanshah are stressed near the end.

• English speakers often say "TAH-briz" for Tabriz, but "tah-BREEZ" is closer to the Persian stress pattern.

• Qom is a very short one-syllable word, roughly rhyming with home but with a shorter vowel.

• Yazd is also one syllable; the final zd cluster is pronounced.

One geographic pattern that jumps out is that almost all of Iran's largest cities lie either along the wetter mountain rims (Alborz, Zagros, Azerbaijan highlands) or beside rivers and oases. The great deserts of central Iran—the Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut—remain comparatively sparsely populated, with Yazd and Kerman serving as notable oasis exceptions.

Sheesh! I forgot to ask for population after pronunciation and before location. Can you squeeze it in: just a raw number.

Certainly. I've inserted an approximate city-population column (urban agglomeration/city estimates, rounded to the nearest thousand where appropriate) between pronunciation and location.

City	Pronunciation (stress boldfaced)	Population	Relative to Tehran	Geographic setting
Tehran	tehr-AHN	9,616,000	Reference point	Southern foot of the Alborz Mountains
Mashhad	mash-HAD	3,372,000	~740 km E	Kashaf River valley, near Turkmenistan and Afghanistan
Karaj	kah-RAHJ	1,968,000	~40 km WNW	Alborz foothills immediately west of Tehran
Isfahan	iss-fah-HAHN	1,962,000	~340 km S	On the Zayandeh Rud River in central Iran
Ahvaz	ah-VAHZ	1,311,000	~550 km SW	On the Karun River in the Khuzestan plain
Tabriz	tah-BREEZ	1,643,000	~530 km WNW	Northwestern basin near Armenia and Azerbaijan
Shiraz	shee-RAHZ	1,565,000	~690 km S	In the Zagros Mountains region
Kermanshah	ker-man-SHAH	1,107,000	~410 km W	Zagros Mountains, near Iraq
Qom	KOHM	1,201,000	~125 km SSW	Edge of the Dasht-e Kavir
Urmia	oor-MEE-yah	1,017,000	~600 km WNW	West of Lake Urmia, near Turkey
Rasht	RASHT	700,000	~240 km NW	Near the Caspian Sea coast
Zahedan	zah-heh-DAHN	685,000	~1,120 km ESE	Arid southeast, near Pakistan and Afghanistan
Kerman	ker-MAHN	621,000	~800 km SE	Edge of the Lut Desert
Hamadan	hah-meh-DAHN	554,000	~270 km WSW	Foothills of Mount Alvand
Yazd	YAZD	530,000	~510 km SE	Oasis city between the Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut

One small caveat: depending on whether a source counts only the municipality, the built-up urban area, or the metropolitan area, the middle ranks can shift slightly. For example, Tabriz is generally larger than Ahvaz and sometimes larger than Karaj depending on the definition used. Tehran and Mashhad, however, are unambiguously the two largest cities by a wide margin.