The industrial, agricultural and urban activities have caused the pollution of heavy metals in soil that could also increase the concentration of these metals in the food chain. One of the most well known environmental pollutants is heavy metals which have noticeably increased recently. Identification of the kind and the source of heavy metals is of pivotal importance. As one of the biggest industrial cities in Iran , Isfahan is exposed to contamination by heavy metals. In previous investigations, a great portion of heavy metals concentration found in the soil was attributed to human induced pollution. The main objective of this investigation was to distinguish heavy metals with anthropogenic source from the background concentration of these metals originated from the parent materials in important landforms around the city of Isfahan . Three soil profiles, each of them 2 m deep, were investigated in each landform. Three different extraction methods were used and the concentration of selected heavy metals including lead, cadmium, zinc, copper, nickel and cobalt were determined by an atomic absorption spectrometer. The results showed that, except for lead and zinc, the increase in heavy metals concentration is negligible and the current concentration of heavy metals at the depth of 2 m in studied soils is not very much different from that of the surface soil. Also, heavy metals contents in different methods are less than the threshold values of the heavy metals reported in different countries and only an increase in heavy metals concentration of surface soil is detectable. The differences in heavy metals concentration among landforms imply differences among parent materials and the lithologically derived heavy metals in soils. Sequential extraction results showed that a great portion of heavy metals is in the residual fraction of the soil which cannot be at attributed to human activities. A strong relationship between the quantity of heavy metals and the content of CaCO 3 , EC and clay in the soils shows the great influence of these factors in controlling the concentration of these metals in the soils studied. Due to the precipitation and adsorption of heavy metals in calcareous soils of dry regio it can be concluded that although the high amount of carbonates creates many problems for plant nutrition, but it limits the mobility of pollutants such as heavy metals in soil and consequently reduces the risk of these compounds entering the human food chain.