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Iran (Persian: ایران‎ Irān [ʔiːˈɾɒːn] (About this sound listen)), also known as Persia[10] (/ˈpɜːrʒə/),[11] officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران‎‎ Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān (About this sound listen)),[12] is a sovereign state in Western Asia.[13][14] With over 81 million inhabitants,[6] Iran is the world's 18th-most-populous country.[15] Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), it is the second-largest country in the Middle East and the 17th-largest in the world. Iran is bordered to the northwest by Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan,[a] to the north by the Caspian Sea, to the northeast by Turkmenistan, to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and to the west by Turkey and Iraq. The country's central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, give it geostrategic importance.[16] Tehran is the country's capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations,[17][18] beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BC. It was first unified by the Iranian Medes in the seventh century BC,[19] and reached its greatest extent during the Achaemenid Empire founded by Cyrus the Great in the sixth century BC, stretching from Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley, becoming a larger empire than previously ever existed in the world.[20] The Iranian realm fell to Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, but reemerged shortly after as the Parthian Empire, followed by the Sasanian Empire, which became a leading world power for the next four centuries.[21][22]