Programmatically create a block region in Drupal 7
Edit your theme .info file to add the following line:

regions[youregionname] = Your Region name

Edit your template file (e.g. "page.tpl.php"), and add the following lines:

&lt;?php if(!empty($page['youregionname'])) : ?&gt; &lt;!--check if region enabled--&gt;
  &lt;div class='my-new-region-class' &gt;   &lt;!--add class to my region--&gt;
    &lt;?php print render($page['youregionname']); ?&gt; &lt;!--print the region--&gt;
  &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;?php endif; ?&gt;



After editing the files, don't forget to clear the cache.