D Borbor - President, Borbor International,Consulting Architects, Engineers, Urban Planners, Tehran, Iran

The area from the Persian Gulf up to the ridges of the Zagros Mountains present all types of ancient settlements, from the first developments of the Pre-pottery Neolithic, and the Pottery Neolithic, through the first larger permanent communities, up to all the higher forms of organization, such as the village, town, city, city region, regional centre, state and even confederation. This is also the case for the northern parts of this mountain range. Consequently, the present paper presents the argument that the Zagros must not be regarded in isolation, but in union with the vernacular of its hinterland; it investigates, traces and reconstructs the unique socio-urban interaction between the mountains and their hinterland from the prehistoric to the historic periods, a continuous process unprecedented elsewhere in the ancient world.