240px|thumb|The Zagros Mountains from space, September 1992 The Zagros Mountains (Kurdish: ??????? ??????? ??????, ), make up Iran's and Iraq's largest mountain range. They have a total length of 1 500 km from western Iran, specifically South Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) region on the border with Iraq to the southern parts of the Persian Gulf. The mountain range ends at the Straits of Hormuz. The highest points in the Zagros Mountains are Zard Kuh (4 548 m) and Mt. Dena (4 359 m). The Hazaran massif in the Kerman province forms a eastern outlier of the range, the Jebal Barez reaching into Sistan. The Zagros Mountains were formed by collision of two tectonic plates ? the Eurasian and Arabian Plates. Stresses induced in the Earth's crust by the collision caused extensive folding of the preexisting layered sedimentary rocks. Subsequent erosion removed softer rocks, such as mudstone (rock formed by consolidated mu