Arasbaran has never belonged to just one people. In antiquity, the Alarodians and Caspian tribes inhabited the region. It passed through the hands of the Medes and then the Persian Empire. By the 2nd century BC, the area fell within the Armenian kingdom, where the principality of Parspatunik took root and endured until the 6th century AD. Small Armenian melikdoms persisted in the mountains of Karadagh until the Turkish invasion of 1918. Armenian communities remain in the area today. This layering of cultures produced a landscape dotted with ancient fortifications, caravanserais, and villages where architectural traditions from multiple civilizations overlap within a single valley. The Aras River forming the northern boundary has served as both a lifeline and a frontier for millennia.

The biosphere reserve stretches between coordinates 38 degrees 40 minutes to 39 degrees 08 minutes north and 46 degrees 39 minutes to 47 degrees 02 minutes east, encompassing terrain that rises from river valleys to the Qusha Dagh massif. The forests harbor species that have retreated here from broader ranges, making Arasbaran a refugium -- a biological time capsule. The canopy includes Caucasian oak, hornbeam, maple, and wild fruit trees. Below the treeline, meadows bloom with wildflowers in spring. The isolation of these mountain forests from the surrounding arid steppe has allowed plant and animal communities to develop in relative seclusion. In 2023, neighboring Jolfa County to the north received UNESCO Aras Geopark designation, further recognizing the region's geological and ecological significance.

The people of Arasbaran have adapted to a landscape that is both generous and demanding. Villages cling to hillsides where terraced gardens produce walnuts, pomegranates, and apricots. The Qusha Dagh massif channels weather patterns that bring heavier precipitation than the surrounding lowlands, sustaining agriculture that would be impossible a few valleys away. Traditional carpet weaving remains a living craft. The region's boundaries are defined by geography rather than political lines: the Aras River to the north, the Meshgin Shahr County and Mughan plain to the east, Sarab County to the south, and Tabriz and Marand counties to the west. Within this frame, communities have maintained cultural practices that reflect the diverse heritage of a crossroads region.

Arasbaran's biosphere status has provided a measure of protection, but the pressures are real. Overgrazing, illegal logging, and road construction threaten forest margins. Climate change is shifting precipitation patterns in ways that could alter the delicate balance between forest and steppe. Yet the region's remoteness has been its greatest defense. Many of the deepest forest valleys remain accessible only on foot or by mule, and the terrain that frustrated ancient armies now frustrates modern developers. The 2023 Geopark designation for Jolfa County signals growing international attention to what Arasbaran represents: one of the last intact mountain forest ecosystems in a part of the world where such landscapes have been disappearing for centuries.