Iran’s capital is Tehran, its highest peak is Mount Damavand at about 5,610 meters, and it shares land borders with seven countries. These 25 Iran trivia questions cover geography, ancient and modern history, culture, the Persian language and modern facts, each with a short explanation.
Iran (ایران, Irân) lies between the Caspian Sea in the north and the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman in the south. Two mountain ranges frame the country: the Alborz along the Caspian and the Zagros in the west, with vast deserts in the center and east. Its history as a great power begins with the Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century BC. For a quick refresher before you start, read our 50 interesting facts about Iran.
Iran uses a solar calendar that starts each year at Nowruz, so the year that began in March 2026 is 1405 on Iranian documents. Some facts change over time: population figures here are 2025 estimates, and the UNESCO count is as of 2026. Persian words appear in Persian script with a transliteration, so you can pick up a few words of Persian (فارسی, fârsi) along the way.
Read each explanation after you submit: many add a second fact that helps with a later question.
Geography
1. What is the capital of Iran?
2. Mount Damavand, about 5,610 meters high, is Iran’s highest peak. What else is it known as?
3. Which of these countries does NOT share a land border with Iran?
4. Which body of water lies along Iran’s northern coast?
5. Which Iranian desert is famous for some of the highest land-surface temperatures ever measured by satellite?
6. How many provinces does Iran have?
History
7. Who founded the Achaemenid Empire around 550 BC?
8. Which Achaemenid king began building Persepolis around 518 BC?
9. What do Iranians call the ruins of Persepolis?
10. In which year did the government ask other countries to call the country Iran instead of Persia?
11. The 1979 revolution ended the rule of which dynasty?
Culture
12. When do Iranians celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year?
13. All seven items on a Nowruz haft-sin table begin with which Persian letter?
14. What does Shab-e Yalda (Yalda night) celebrate?
15. You ask a taxi driver in Tehran how much you owe, and he says قابل نداره (ghâbel nadâre, it’s not worthy of you). What should you do?
16. Iran grows more than 90 percent of the world’s supply of which spice?
17. Rafsanjan, in Kerman Province, is famous for growing which nut?
18. Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan and Kerman are all famous for which traditional craft?
Language
19. What is the official language of Iran?
20. Persian is called Dari in Afghanistan. What is it called in Tajikistan?
21. Which of these languages spoken in Iran is NOT an Iranian language, that is, not a relative of Persian?
22. Persian belongs to which language family?
Modern Iran
23. About how many people lived in Iran in 2025?
24. Iran’s official currency is the rial, but prices are usually quoted in which unit?
25. As of 2026, how many UNESCO World Heritage Sites does Iran have?
Answer key with explanations
- B. Tehran: تهران (Tehrân) has been the capital since the Qajar dynasty in the late 18th century and is by far the largest city. Isfahan was the capital under the Safavids, which is why it is full of royal mosques and palaces.
- A. The highest volcano in Asia: دماوند (Damâvand) is a dormant volcano in the Alborz range, northeast of Tehran, and the highest volcano in Asia. It belongs to the Alborz, not the Zagros, and in Persian legend the tyrant Zahhak was chained inside it.
- C. Syria: Iran has land borders with seven countries: Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Syria is close but separated from Iran by Iraq and Turkey.
- D. The Caspian Sea: Iranians call the Caspian Sea دریای خزر (daryâ-ye Khazar). It is the largest inland body of water in the world; the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman form Iran’s southern coast.
- C. The Lut Desert (Dasht-e Lut): دشت لوت (Dasht-e Lut) in southeastern Iran has recorded surface temperatures of around 70 °C and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Dasht-e Kavir is Iran’s other great desert, in the center of the country, known for its salt flats.
- C. 31: Iran is divided into 31 provinces, each called an استان (ostân). The number grew over time; for example, the large province of Khorasan was split into three provinces in 2004.
- C. Cyrus the Great: کوروش بزرگ (Kurosh-e Bozorg, Cyrus the Great) built the first Persian empire and took Babylon in 539 BC; his tomb stands at Pasargadae. Read more in our article on Cyrus the Great.
- D. Darius I: Darius I started the palace complex; his son Xerxes I continued it, which makes Xerxes a tempting but wrong answer. Cyrus had built his capital at Pasargadae instead.
- D. تخت جمشید: تخت جمشید (Takht-e Jamshid, the Throne of Jamshid) is named after a legendary king; Alexander the Great burned the palaces in 330 BC. نقش رستم (Naghsh-e Rostam) is the nearby site of royal Achaemenid tombs.
- C. 1935: Iranians had always called their country Iran; Persia was the Western name, from the Greek for the region of Fars. Reza Shah asked foreign governments to use Iran in 1935.
- A. The Pahlavi dynasty: Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi left Iran in January 1979, and the Islamic Republic was declared after a referendum that spring. The Qajars had been replaced by the Pahlavis in the 1920s.
- D. On the spring equinox, around March 20 or 21: نوروز (Nowruz, new day) falls at the exact moment of the spring equinox and marks the first day of the month Farvardin. Because it follows the sun, it lands on the same season every year.
- A. س: هفتسین (haft-sin) means “seven S’s”: the items begin with س (sin), such as سبزه (sabze, sprouts), سیب (sib, apple), سیر (sir, garlic) and سرکه (serke, vinegar). ص also sounds like s, but it is a different letter.
- C. The longest night of the year: شب یلدا (Shab-e Yaldâ) falls on the winter solstice, around December 20 or 21. Families stay up late eating انار (anâr, pomegranate), هندوانه (hendevâne, watermelon) and nuts.
- D. Insist politely and pay, because this is ta’ârof: تعارف (ta’ârof) is ritual politeness: the driver offers the ride as a courtesy and fully expects you to insist and pay. Learn how it works in our guide to ta’ârof and Persian politeness.
- C. Saffron: زعفران (za’farân, saffron) comes from the hand-picked threads of the saffron crocus, mostly grown in Khorasan in northeastern Iran. It colors and flavors dishes such as rice and the dessert شلهزرد (sholezard).
- C. Pistachios: پسته (peste, pistachio) orchards cover much of Kerman Province, and Iran is one of the world’s leading pistachio producers. Iranians eat them roasted and salted, especially at Nowruz and on Yalda night.
- A. Hand-knotted carpets: Persian carpets, called فرش (farsh) or قالی (ghâli), are often named after the city or region where they are woven. Each center has its own patterns and colors, so experts can often tell a Tabriz from a Kashan at a glance.
- A. Persian (Farsi): Persian, called فارسی (fârsi) by its speakers, is the official language and the language of schools and media. Many Iranians also speak Azerbaijani Turkish, Kurdish, Luri, Arabic or other languages at home.
- C. Tajik: Farsi, Dari (دری, dari) and Tajik (تاجیکی, tâjiki) are varieties of one language, and their speakers can largely understand each other. Tajik is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, while Iranian Persian and Dari use the Perso-Arabic script.
- B. Azerbaijani Turkish: Azerbaijani, spoken mainly in northwestern Iran around Tabriz, is a Turkic language, close to the Turkish of Turkey. Kurdish, Luri and Balochi all belong to the same Iranian branch as Persian, so they share many words with it.
- B. Indo-European: Persian is an Indo-European language, a distant relative of English: compare مادر (mâdar, mother) and برادر (barâdar, brother). It borrowed many Arabic words, but Arabic is a Semitic language and Persian grammar is completely different.
- A. About 92 million: Iran’s population was estimated at about 92 million in 2025. Tehran is the largest city by far, followed by Mashhad.
- A. The toman: In everyday use one تومان (tomân) equals 10 ریال (riyâl), so a meal priced at 200,000 tomans costs 2,000,000 rials. Always ask whether a price is in tomans or rials to avoid a tenfold mistake.
- B. 30: Iran has 30 World Heritage Sites as of 2026, from ancient palaces to deserts and historic gardens. The first three, inscribed in 1979, were Persepolis, Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan and the ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil.
How to learn more about Iran
The fastest way to understand Iran is through its language. Even a few Persian words, such as سلام (salâm, hello) and مرسی (mersi, thanks), change how people respond to you, and the names on maps and menus start to make sense.
If you plan to learn the language, first decide which variety you need: Iranian Persian, Afghan Dari and Tajik share most of their grammar but differ in accent, some vocabulary and, for Tajik, the alphabet.