Zabol () is a city in the Central District of Zabol County, Sistan and Baluchestan province,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Zabol is near the

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

with

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Demographics

Language and ethnicity

The people of Zabol are a mix of

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

who speak a variant of the

Persian language Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...

known as '' Sistani'' or Seistani, and a small minority of Baloch who speak Balochi, a Northwestern Iranian language.

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 130,642 in 27,867 households. The 2011 census counted 137,722 people in 33,957 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 134,950 people in 35,401 households.

Geography

Location

Zabol is located near Lake Hamun, in the

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

Sīstān Basin, and the region is irrigated by the

Helmand River The Helmand river (Pashto/Dari: ; Ancient Greek: Ἐτύμανδρος, ''Etýmandros''; Latin: '), also spelled Helmend, or Helmund, Hirmand, is the longest river in Afghanistan and the primary watershed for the endorheic Sistan Basin. It o ...

. Lake Hamun is a seasonal lake that is often dry. Zabol is connected by road to Milak and Zaranj (across the border in Afghanistan). The Delaram-Zaranj Highway provides road connectivity to the rest of Afghanistan. Zabol thus provides Afghanistan access to the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...

and

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

via the Port of Chabahar. Zabol has a regional airport.

Air pollution

The Zabol area is well known for its " 120-day wind" (''bād-e sad-o-bist-roz''), a highly persistent dust storm in the summer which blows from north to south. The disappearance in the 2000s of the nearby Hamoun wetlands has exacerbated the dusty conditions in Zabol, leading the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

to name Zabol the most polluted city in the world in 2016. A 2017 study in the journal ''Preventive Medicine'' suggested that the harm from 30 minutes of cycling outdoors in Zabol's polluted air would outweigh the benefits of the exercise.

Climate

Zabol has a

hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''BWh'').

Colleges and universities

250px, Presidential Building of Zabol University The city is home to Zabol University, the largest university in the city, as well as the Zabol Medical Science University and the Sistan Museum of Anthropology. * Islamic Azad university, Zabol Branch * Payame-noor university of Zabol

Notes

References

{{Sistan and Baluchestan Province Cities in Sistan and Baluchestan province Populated places in Zabol County