Kerman Province is situated in southeast Iran, to the southwest of the Kavir-e Lut, Lut Desert or Dasht-e-Lut) covering an area of 182,000 km² (70,000 square miles). Kerman is the largest province in Iran, constituting 11 percent of its soil. The province lies between lat 26°29′ and 31°58′ N and long 54°20′ and 59°34′ E; it forms roughly an inverted right triangle facing west, with an east-west base of 470 km in the north and height of 630 km. The province is bounded in the southwest by Hormozgan and Fars Provinces, in the northwest and north by Yazd Province, in the northeast by Khorasan Province, and in the east by Sistan and Baluchistan Province.

The highest mountains in Kerman are the summit Jupar (4,089 m) overlooking the city of Kerman, Lalazar (4,234 m), Hazar (4,465 m) near Rayen, and Bahr Aseman (3,046 m). It is in the foothills of these mountain chains that the upland oases of the province lie.

The province falls into the arid and semi-arid zones and like much of the Iranian plateau suffers from scarcity of water—a dire condition as the population continues to grow. There are several, but mostly seasonal, mountain streams. The only significant river is the Halilrud, about 400 km long. It irrigates the vast fertile plain of Jiroft and disappears further south into the marshes of the Jaz Murian. The average annual rainfall is low and decreases towards the southeast, although the topography gives rise to many local variations. Maximum precipitation occurs in winter; the annual average rainfall is 80 mm and 142 mm in the cities of Bam and Kerman respectively. But precipitation is more abundant at higher elevations, and the snow that falls in the mountains refills the aquifers from which manmade underground channels (qanat, kariz) draw water for irrigation, notwithstanding the brackishness of the qanats’ outflow in many places. Most of the older subterranean watercourses have dried up, whether because the flow in the aquifers is entirely consumed or the underground water is sucked out by electric pumps; since the 1940s, the use of deep wells has become prevalent for creating islets of intensive cultivation.

The binary climatic division of the Iranian Plateau into cold and warm zones (sardsir and garmsir) is quintessential in Kerman. The province is divided into two distinct macroclimates, sardsir in the upland north and garmsir in the lowland south, generally speaking. The upland Sirjan has a temperate climate, while Kerman, Rafsanjan, Zarand, and Ravar have hot summers and mild winters. The southern districts of Bam, Jiroft, Kahnuj, and Manujan are characterized by having warm climate with an increasing humidity towards the Sea of Oman and the Indian Ocean. At the city of Kerman, with an elevation of 1,762 m, the average high temperature in January is 11.8° C, and the average low is -4.0° C. In July the average maximum and minimum are 35.5° C and 17° C, respectively. Put in a national perspective, with consideration of temperature and precipitation combined, the district of Kerman lies within a “steppe” climate, compared with the desert status of Yazd and Zahedan and the humid status of Bandar ʿAbbas.

Despite the favorable condition the mountains provide for human settlement, they are also the cause of destructive earthquakes. Modern documentation reveals an average return period of five to ten years for significant seismic events. The highest seismic activity belongs to the fault system called Gowk along the longitudinal edge separating the Kerman plateau from Dasht-e Lut. It extends some 100 km approximately from Shahdad to Golbaf. A shorter fault in the south, also running longitudinally, was responsible for the devastating Bam earthquake in December 2003.

Administrative boundaries and divisions. Although the geographical concept of Kerman in its narrow sense pertains chiefly to the cold highlands or the northern plateau that covers the current province, in a wider sense, at least in modern history, Kerman was one of the four eyalats or super-provinces (together with Azerbaijan, Khorasan, and Fars) that formed four quadrants over the map of Persia, an arrangement perpetuated by the law of territorial divisions of 1907. In this setting, Kerman Province, also known as Kerman and Makran or Kerman and Baluchistan, extended eastward up to the Indo-Persian border and southward to the Sea of Oman. The administrative reforms of 1934-38, which divided Persia into ten provinces, made little change in the borders of the former Kerman province, which was now called the Eighth Province (constituting Kerman, Bam, Bandar ʿAbbas, Ḵhash, and Zabol. The territory of the Eighth Province shrank over the subsequent decades, to what is now called Kerman Province, due to two major secessions. The eastern half of the historical province was incorporated into the new province of Sistan and Baluchistan, and the southern coast was carved off to form what is known today as the province of Hormozgan.

In spite of all these variations, the city of Kerman (1,038 km distance to Tehran) remains the most important provincial capital in the southeastern quarter of Iran.

Economy. Having economically ranked low among Iranian provinces and cities for most of the 20th century, Kerman became engaged in national economy through exploitation of its rich mines, expansion of transportation infrastructure, and establishment of educational and tourism services.

Agriculture still plays an important role in the economy of Kerman Province. The upland regions have diversified subsistence farming of cereals, potatoes, cotton, sugar beets, oilseeds, vegetables, and a large variety of fruits, including peaches, cherries, apples, pears, persimmons, as well as nuts. Kermani cumin, mostly cultivated in Baft, enjoys such a nationwide reputation that it has led to the proverb: zira beh Kerman bordan (lit. “carrying cumin to Kerman”), approximating the English phrase of “carrying coals to Newcastle.” Pistachios, another famous product of the province that is farmed in Rafsanjan, has in recent decades become subject to semi-mechanized agronomy and is produced in such a large quantity that it is exported abroad after saturating national markets. Production of another labor-intensive crop, sugarcane, is rapidly expanding, especially in Bardsir (Razavi). In the warm lowlands of the province, rice, cereals, fruits, and henna are grown. The agriculture of Bam has come to be dominated by date palm and citrus farming, the produce of which is marketed throughout Iran.

Animal husbandry has lost its edge in the province. Tending large flocks of sheep and goat was partly an occupation of various nomadic groups throughout the province including the Afshars who wintered in Jiroft and summered in Baft. They produced wool, including down wool (kork), which was used in weaving the famous shawls of Kerman. Erosion of the traditional nomadic and rural base and destruction of the grassland through overgrazing has resulted in a sharp decline in animal herding.

Kerman has long excelled in manufacturing textile and weaving carpets. The Kerman carpet is as famous as its cumin and is the subject of a Persian metaphor meṯl-e qāli-e Kermān (“like a Kerman carpet”), implying the idiomatic expression “the older, the better.” Carpet manufacture remains one of the main industries of Kerman city and its neighboring districts, although its international market is far less promising than it used to be. There were also many textile factories that produced Kerman’s famous shawls, brocade (terma;), and ʿabāʾ, but these are no longer flourishing, while patta-duzi, an embroidering art still survives as a cottage industry.

No business engages Kerman with the national networks to a greater extent than mining does. Extensive mining of coal, iron ore, and copper is being carried on in various parts of the province. Coal deposits extend in the mountains from Zarand to Ravar, yielding most of national coal consumption in Iran. The iron ore deposits of Gol Gowhar in Sirjan sub-province are one of largest worldwide. Copper deposits of Kerman Province extend along a beltline from Shar-e-Babak southeastwardly. The richest copper mine, one of the largest in the world, is at Sarcheshmeh, located 50 km south of the city of Rafsanjan. Systematic mining operations were begun in 1972 by the Sarčašma Copper Company, operated since 1976 under the auspices of the National Iranian Copper Industries Co.

Modern transportation infrastructure has been the most essential means in bringing Kerman out of its historical isolation caused by deserts and mountains. In addition to the grid of modern highways that connect urban centers within and without the province, the Tehran -Kerman line of the trans-Iranian railway extends as far south as the city of Kerman and reaches Zahedan. Another railway branch from Yazd, to Bafq and Bandar Abbas, bypasses Kerman City but cuts across the western parts of the province to reach the copper mines of Sarcheshmeh and iron ore mines of Gol Gowhar. The railroad also gave rise to the idea of a Sirjan Free Trade Zone, designed to become a nodal point on a commercial transit grid between the southern seaport terminals and the inner plateau. Last but not least is air transport, in which Kermani businessmen made a surprising initiative in 1992 by establishing Mahan Airline, which has grown to one of the largest airline companies in the country.