<P> The suffix - stan (Persian: ـستان ‎, translit . stân) is Persian for "place of" or "country". It appears in the names of many regions in Iran, Afghanistan, Central and South Asia, but also in the Caucasus and Russia; areas where significant amounts of Persian culture were spread or adopted . </P> <P> The suffix - stan is analogous to the suffix - land, present in many country and location names . The suffix is also used more generally, as in Persian (borrowed into Urdu) rigestân (ریگستان ‬) "place of sand, desert", golestân (Persian: گلستان ‎) "place of flowers, garden", Pakistân "land of the pure", Hindustân "land of the Indus river", and in Bengali koborsthan (Bengali: কবরস্থান koborsthān) "graveyard / cemetery" etc . </P>

What is the meaning of stan in country names