This study was undertaken to assess the rate of HPV infection in cervical carcinoma among southern Iranian patients. 101 archival cervical carcinoma tissue samples of a 10 year period were studied for the presence of HPV DNA in southern Iran by a polymerase chain reaction method. In addition, the presence of high risk HPV-16 and HPV-18 genotypes was investigated. In total, 88 (87.1%) of the samples were HPV DNA positive, of which 83 were squamous cell carcinomas and 5 were adenocarcinomas. HPV-16 genotype was detected in 26.7% of HPV positive cervical carcinomas; however, none of the samples were positive for the existence of HPV-18 genotype. Collectively, these results suggest that HPV-16 and HPV-18 are not the frequent high risk HPV types in our patients and circulating HPV types in southern Iranian population are different from many other populations.