Konarak, Iran

Konarak is a city in the Central District of Konarak County, Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.

Language and ethnicity
Like in nearby Pakistan's Balochistan province, the overwhelming majority of the city's inhabitants are ethnic Baloch who speak the Balochi language.

Population
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 28,685 in 6,044 households. The following census in 2011 counted 35,630 people in 7,975 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 43,258 people in 9,954 households.

It is on the western coast of Chabahar Bay, facing Chabahar Port to the East, on the Makran coast on the Gulf of Oman, about 50 km West of the Iran-Pakistan coastal border line.

Konarak Airport is a military airbase (see below), which also has civilian flights.

Military Bases
Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (army, navy, air force) have established bases in Konarak for a long time — the construction of which started in the 1970s — before the Iranian Revolution, with the support of Western engineering, construction and logistics firms such as Brown & Root.

The Iranian Navy also has a related base in Pasabandar, further east and very close to the border with Pakistan. The support vessel Konarak was named in the city's honour; the Konarak was destroyed in a 2020 accident.