Zabol is a city in and the capital of Zabol County

Zabol County

Zabol County is a county in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in Iran. The capital of the county is Zabol. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 317,357, in 67,778 families; excluding those portions, the population was 244,103, in 53,101 families...

, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. Zabol lies on the border with both Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 and Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. At the 2006 census, its population was 130,642, in 27,867 families.

Zabol is located near Lake Hamun

Lake Hamun

Lake Hāmūn or Hamoun Oasis is a term applied to wetlands in endorheic Sīstān Basin on the on the Irano-Lake Hāmūn or Hamoun Oasis is a term applied to [[wetland]]s in [[Endorheic_basin|endorheic]] [[Sistan_Basin|Sīstān Basin]] on the on the [[Iran]]o-Lake Hāmūn or Hamoun Oasis is a term...

 and the region is irrigated by the Hirmand River. Lake Hamun is a seasonal lake

Hamuns

A hamun refers to seasonal desert lakes or marshlands, found on the Iranian Plateau, from Iran to Afghanistan and western Pakistan /...

 that is often dry. The people of Zabol speak a Persian language

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

 variant known as Sistani

Sistani people

Sistani Persian people or Sistanis are a Persian speaking ethnic group who primarily inhabit Sistan in southeastern Iran.They live in the northern part of Sistan and Balouchistan province, where they form a minority after Baluchis...

or Seistani which is very similar to Dari

Dari (Eastern Persian)

Dari or Fārsī-ye Darī in historical terms refers to the Persian court language of the Sassanids. In contemporary usage, the term refers to the dialects of modern Persian language spoken in Afghanistan, and hence known as Afghan Persian in some Western sources. It is the term officially recognized...

, also known as Afghan Persian. The tribes of the area include the Shahraki, Arbabi, Barani, Sarani, Fakhireh, Mir, Dahmardeh, Rashki, Sanchooli, Pahlevan, Faghiri, Divaneh, Gorg, Nohtani, and Sayyadi. In recent years these tribal names appear in the surnames of the inhabitants of the area. There are also many Baluchi

Baloch people

The Baloch or Baluch are an ethnic group that belong to the larger Iranian peoples. Baluch people mainly inhabit the Balochistan region and Sistan and Baluchestan Province in the southeast corner of the Iranian plateau in Western Asia....

s, Brahui

Brahui

The name Brahui may refer to:*The Brahui language*The Brahui people...

s and some Pashtuns in the city.

Zabol area is well known for its "120 day wind" (bād-e sad-o-bist-roz), a highly persistent dust storm in the summer which blows from north to south.

The city is home to Zabol University

Zabol University

University of Zabol is a university in the city of Zabol in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan in Iran.-See also:*Higher Education in Iran...

, the largest university in the city. Zabol has a regional airport with two runways.

Zabol is connected by road to Zaranj

Zaranj

Zaranj or Zarang is a border town in south-western Afghanistan, with a population of approximately 49,851 people as of 2004. It is the capital of Nimruz province and is situated next to Milak, Iran. It is linked by highways with Lashkar Gah to the east, Farah to the north and Zabol in Iran to the...

 across the border in Afghanistan. The Delaram-Zaranj Highway provides road connectivity to the rest of Afghanistan. Zabol thus provides Afghanistan access to the Arabian Sea

Arabian Sea

The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...

 and Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

 via the Port of Chabahar

Port of Chabahar

The Port of Chabahar is a seaport on the Oman Sea in southeastern Iran. It is the only Iranian port with direct access to the ocean.- Chabahar port history :...

.