Zagros Mountains

   A major and imposing range of mountains that borders Mesopotamia in the west and southwest and played an important part in the history of the region. The Zagros peaks make up Iraq's principal mountain chain and Iran's second-largest chain. They run for some 930 miles (1,500 km) from the highlands of western Iran southeastward to a point near the Strait of Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. The highest point in the Zagros chain is the peak called Zard Kuh, rising to an impressive height of 14,917 feet (4,548m). The Zagros foothills contain numerous valleys, some of them well watered and fertile; these became the main focus of a number of ancient peoples who variously traded with, fought, or invaded the Mesopotamian plains. Among the leading peoples of the western side of the Za-gros range were the Elamites, longtime rivals of the Babylonians, and the Guti, who invaded Mesopotamia in the late third millennium b.c. The eastern and northern valleys of the Zagros foothills were settled by the Medes and later by their cousins, the Persians, whose main homeland was Fars, just north of the Persian Gulf.

   See also: Elam; Guti; Medes