Kopet-Dag Range

Kopet-Dag Range, mountain range on the border between Turkmenistan and Iran. It runs northwest-southeast for more than 400 miles (645 km), from near the Caspian Sea (northwest) to the Harīrūd (Turkmen: Tejen) River (southeast). Kūh-e Qūchān, in Iran, with an elevation of 10,466 feet (3,190 metres), is the highest point in the Kopet-Dag proper, although there are higher elevations in the range’s outliers in Iran.

The foundation of the Kopet-Dag is made up of carbonate and clastic rocks laid down during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods (about 201 million to 66 million years ago). Additional orogenies (mountain-building events) stemming from the collision of the Arabian Plate with the Eurasian Plate, which began late in the Paleogene Period (66 million to 23 million years ago), continue to shape the range’s relief. The range has a Mediterranean climate, with warm dry summers and relatively cool damp winters. The slopes of the Kopet-Dag support desert vegetation at lower elevations, drought-tolerant grasslands at middle elevations, and juniper and cypress forests on the highest slopes. The city of Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, lies in the foothills of the Kopet-Dag.