It is at Albania's geographic center and is a center, as well, for the country's economic, administrative, and cultural affairs. Tiran is surrounded by hills but is linked to other cities by road and railway. It also has an international airport. The climate is hot and dry in the summer and mild but wet in the winter. Hydroelectric and thermal power plants were completed in 1951, and coal mines operate nearby.
Industry includes the manufacture of textiles, medicines, cosmetics, machinery, and dyes.
Tiran houses a state university, museums, a concert hall, a ballet company, and many theaters. Founded by a Turkish general in the early 1600s at the site of a Byzantine fortress, Tiran gradually grew as a trading center. It became the capital of Albania in 1920. When Albania was overrun by Italian and German armed forces from 1939 to 1944, Tiran was the center of the country's anti-occupation resistance. In the years that followed, the Soviets and then the Chinese encouraged city expansion.