Poldasht
Poldasht
City in West Azerbaijan province, Iran
Poldasht (Persian: پلدشت) (Azerbaijani: Daş Körpü), also Romanized as Pol Dasht, Pol’desht, Pol-e Dasht, and Pul Dasht; also known as Araplar,[3] is a city in the Central District of Poldasht County in Iran's West Azerbaijan province, serving as capital of both the county and the district.[4]
At the 2006 census, the city population was 8,584 residents in 2,205 households, when it was in the former Poldasht District of Maku County.[5] The following census in 2011 counted 9,963 people in 2,658 households,[6] by which time the district had been separated from the county in the establishment of Poldasht County.[4] The latest census in 2016 showed a population of 11,472 people in 3,377 households.[2] The city lies on the western bank of the Aras River.
Poldasht is a Persian word meaning arable land by the bridge. The city is situated near the border crossing with the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan. Across the Poldasht-Shah Takhti Bridge over the Aras is the Azerbaijani village of Şahtaxtı. It is one of the two Iran-Nakhchivan border crossings; the other is located near the city of Jolfa in East Azerbaijan Province. Also adjacent to Poldasht is the Aras River Dam.