As the capital city of Isfahan province, Isfahan, the second largest city of Iran, is located on the edge of the central basin with an altitude of 1,590 meters, which is 427 kilometers away from Teheran, the capital city of Iran. There are 2,000,000 people living in an area of 250 square kilometers here, and Islam is the main religion.

With its brilliant history and prosperous commerce, Isfahan, an important south station of the “Silk Road”, stood as the center of business between the East and the West, which made it one of the rich places in the world, thus there is a proverb “the wealth of Esfahan is half of that in the whole world”, which shows the great prosperity of Isfahan in history and the its influence to world.

Traditionally as a center of light industry, Isfahan ranks the first in textile industry including industries in cotton textile, silk manufacturing, dried fruit, paper making, oil manufacturing and matchstick. Meanwhile, it is famous for its handicraft including wares in silver, bronze and pottery as well as for its carpet industry. Heavy industry has grown gradually, thus the first steel plant in Iran has been built, and factory in petrochemical engineering, oil refining, concrete, munitions have been developed, and the main nuclear facilities have been constructed here.

Rich in cultural resources, Isfahan is a famous tourist resort, and is compared as an encyclopedia of art and construction of Iran and Islam. There are various kinds of scenic spots and historic sites and representative constructions such as Imam Square,  Shaking Minarets ， Fire temple ,  Shahrestan Bridge and so on. As the educational center of Iran, Isfahan possesses many famous universities like University of Isfahan, Isfahan University of Technology. In addition, Isfahan is also the cradle of many great famous theologians, artists, poets and scientists as well as philosophers such as Mirza Abbas Khan Sheida，Hamid Mosadegh and Mahmoud Farshchian were all born in Isfahan and made contributions to the development of Islamic civilization.

The supreme authority of Isfahan belongs to the provincial governor. The city council has been founded, which is responsible for mayor appointment and the decision of the administrative system of Isfahan. In other words, the city council is in charge of formulating laws and regulations, while the mayor implements. The present mayor is Nejad Esfahani.

On May 6, 1989, Isfahan and Xi’an became sister cities. The other twin cities of Isfahan include Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Iasi, Romania; Florence, Italy and St.Petersburg, Russia.