Aras Geopark

Aras Geopark is located in eastern Azerbaijan Province of Iran. The Geopark has an area of about 1670 square kilometers and spread across the whole Jolfa county.

From a natural geographical view, this mountainous area is the southern end of little Caucasus that encompasses countries include Armenia, Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and northern Azerbaijan of Iran. This mountain alongside with Alborz and Zagros are forming middle part of Alpine-Himalayan Orogeny that stretches from southern Europe to eastern Asia and acting as a natural barrier, caused a great diversity in climate, life and cultures in each two sides slopes.

 The main source of precipitations is the Mediterranean wet air fronts which enter the area on early autumn to mid-spring from northwest and west, and forms an average precipitation about 250-350 mm per year.

The topography is generally extremely steep, and forms astonishing landscapes, so that the highest point in Jolfa region is the Kiyamaki mount with 3347 m and the lowest points include the northern boundary and the Aras river valley with 720 to 390 meters. Given to its climate, the area has a diverse vegetation, so that Aras valley is covered by subtropical trees, since the western and middle parts are dominated by steppe, and Arasbaran dense forests are seen on eastern slopes. The permanent snow line is located above the altitude of 3000 meters.

The main river in the area is the Aras river that make the northern boundary of the geopark with Armenia and Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The continues roaring steam of the river passing from northwestern to northeastern drains surface waters in the area. The river in downstream meets the Kura River and at last flows into the Caspian Sea.

The area has an appropriate geo-tourism attraction, because of its mountainous landscapes, and outcropping different sedimentary and igneous rocks, diversity in tectonic structures, semi-cold and semi-arid climate and diverse flora and fauna.

Main geosites in the Geopark include Kamtal, Marakan, Darediz and Kiyamaki localities, that given to their diverse flora and fauna, are protected by Iranian Department of Environment. Among the most notable geological features of the Geopark can mention to Paleozoic-Mesozoic sedimentary rocks sequence, especially the conformity of Permian to Triassic sediments, that is very interesting for geologists, plutonic provinces and extensive granitic rocks which is covered eastern part of area, volcanic and sub-volcanic provinces that form Kiyamaki dome, compression regime resulting from Alpine Orogeny which causes developing different structural features such as faulting, trusting and folding of rocks, fossil site localities, mineral springs which deposit travertine, and at last the Aras River and its related geomorphic features. Each of these phenomena can shows different orogenic phases, its forming processes and life history on our planet.