Ancient Agricultural Terraces, Zagros Mountains near Shiraz, Southwestern Iran

These vast ancient terraces on the foothills of the Zagros near Shiraz show the enduring mark of millennia‑old agricultural engineering in arid Iran. Contour‑parallel ridges shaped by human labor stabilized mountain slopes, retained runoff and sediments, and transformed the dry highlands into productive terrain. The patterned texture visible from above reveals the rhythm of human–earth co‑formation, where geomorphic design became a cultural legacy of resilience. The image records one of the most remarkable examples of anthropogeomorphic modification in Middle Eastern landscapes.