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The Iranian Plateau or the Persian Plateau is a geological feature in Central Asia, South Asia, and Western Asia. It is the part of the Eurasian Plate wedged between the Arabian and Indian plates, situated between the Zagros Mountains to the west, the Caspian Sea and the Kopet Dag to the north, the Armenian Highlands and the Caucasus Mountains in the northwest, the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf to the south and the Indo-Gangetic Plain to the east in Indian subcontinent. As a historical region, it includes Parthia, Media, Persis, the heartlands of Iran and some of the previous territories of Greater Iran. The Zagros Mountains form the plateau's western boundary, and its eastern slopes may be included in the term. The Encyclopædia Britannica excludes "lowland Khuzestan" explicitly and characterizes Elam as spanning "the region from the Mesopotamian Plain to the Iranian Plateau". From the Caspian in the northwest to Balochistan in the south-east, the Iranian Plateau extends for close to 2,000 km. It encompasses the greater part of Iran, all of Afghanistan, and Pakistan west of the Indus River containing some 3,700,000 square kilometres (1,400,000 sq mi). In spite of being called a "plateau", it is far from flat but contains several mountain ranges, the highest peak being Damavand in the Alborz at 5610 m, and the Dasht-e Lut east of Kerman in Central Iran falling below 300 m.