Because there is very little known about Iran from a landscape perspective and because there is a chance accessibility to Iran may change this year, I'm going to write a little..
Travel to Iran is easy - except you cannot currently use Expedia or similar American websites to get flights to Tehran. Dubai (Emirates), Rome (Air Italia) and Frankfurt (Lufthansa) all appear to be current places you can fly into Tehran from. Booking flights direct with airlines' websites is preferable to Expedia & co.
Getting into the country is complicated. Getting a VISA before helps but they can also be acquired at the airport.
Staying there and getting about is complicated. Current sanctions mean no SWIFT and thus credit cards don't work once you are there. Some websites appear to allow booking hotels online but I wasn't able to make that work - therefore all hotels were paid for in cash. As was my driver. I don't advise driving there unless you are accustomed to driving in places where road rules are ignored by nearly everyone all the time (except speed.) One website I read said that Americans, Canadians and UK'ers all needed an Iranian tour guide 24x7.
Once all of that is sorted there is a language barrier. Hoteliers will speak English and some of the younger generation. The food is awesome. The toilets require a different way of thinking but I'll summarise it like this: if you've got a muddy car do you (a) use a hose to clean it and then dry with a towel or (b) get a dry rag and clean it? The western approach to toilets is (b). The Iranian approach is (a). All good hotels have modern toilets. Many roadside places just have squats.
In terms of photographic destinations, I've only had a look at a few places around Tehran. The geology of northern Iran is suggestive of a rich location for landscape photography. Tehran is ~1500m above sea level.
Rising to 5,610m (18,410') is
Mt Damavand - a 2 hour drive from Tehran (see pic #1. The road ("highway" 77) that connects the southern side of the mountains with the nothern area bordering the Caspian Sea is quite scenic and would easily qualify as a AAA scenic drive were it in the USA. I should have been able to get a setting full moon in the attached image except that the driver took a wrong turn and we were over an hour late! He thought he knew better than Google Maps directions (printed out in Persian) ... sigh.
Quite a few more hours drive east is a place called "Badab Sort Springs". Most of the journey there can be done by car but if you want to get there at sunrise (and beat the tourists - mostly Iranians) then a short walk is required up the last 500m or so. (See pic #2) This area kind of reminds me of Mammoth Springs (Yellowstone) except that rather than there being white ledges, there are red-orange ones and the water is cooler (no visible steam.) There are no barriers to keep you off anything so it is therefore necessary to exercise good judgement as to where you put your feet and tripod so as to not do any damage to the natural features.
More interestingly is an area northwest of Tehran - about an hour's drive up "highway 2" from Zanjan: Google Earth to 37° 7'13.97"N, 47°37'41.21"E. See pics 3 & 4. I have not had any time to explore this region - my driver was more conscious of when the hotel's breakfast finished than me spending time on site photographing!
There are other places closer to Tehran where there are good examples of earth being pushed up in strange ways - the drive along Amirkabir Lake (~2 hours from Tehran) being another. This is just scratching the surface - the deserts to the south also appear to be rich in subject material.
One thing that I found is that the Iranians seemed to know very little of the areas that I found with Google Earth and wanted to visit. I didn't see any support for tourists at any destination I visited aside from the locals with trucks that turn up around 10am at Badab Sort Springs to take people up there.
So if you're interested in photographing some interesting landscapes and looking for alternatives to the American Southwest, maybe this is worth a look - definitely if the economic issues get resolved. I'd attach more pics but post limit is 4...
