Shushtar

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Shushtar in southwestern Iran is a town with 80,000 inhabitants, situated on a plateau on the eastern bank of the Karun River. Shushtar lies in the Khuzestan Province.

In ancient times was Shushtar famous for its dams and irrigation systems. Three of the dams date back to Sassanian times (3rd to 7th century CE), of which the largest was 550 metres long. The dam system fell apart through the 19th century. But even today, several waterwheels help run flour mills and produce electricity.

Many of Shushtar's town houses are equipped with cellars that help keep houses cool in summer time. Shushtar is climatically exposed for extremely hot summers, with temperatures reaching as high as 53ºC.

2,000 years old, the most easterly Roman buildings! :)

Everthing in the rest of this post was originally posted by Cyrus. :cheers:

Shushtar

Shushtar is famous for its great engineering works constructed in ancient times for the disposal and use of the waters of the Karun River. Shushtar's little plateau sits between the main arm of the Karun and an artificial channel more than 100 feet (30 m) deep, and the city itself is crossed by small canals that use the Karun's water. But the most impressive works are three large dams built by Romans to regulate the river and the artificial channel's flow and maintain water levels for irrigation. The greatest of these dams, the Band-e Qeysar (Dam of Caesar), was originally 1,800 feet (550 m) long and supported on its numerous arches Valerian's Bridge. To prevent erosion of the riverbed above the dam, the bed was paved with huge stone slabs bound together with iron. The monumental dam was regarded by later Arab conquerors as one of the wonders of the world.


Valerian’s bridge

Valerian’s bridge, the largest dambridge, 165 meters long, is approximately at the exit of Shushtar. It now has only twenty-eight arches on the left bank and seven on the right bank. It was built of carefully bounded stones bound together with cement. To prevent erosion by the rough waters before the dam, the river bed was paved with large stone slabs together with cement.

Caesar Weir

Caesar Weir has nine outlet gates on the body of the weir and one in the right side. The altitude of the gates from the river bed are different and the bottom outlet gate is located in left side. The max. discharge into Gargaros Canal is 406 m3/sec and the annual discharge is about 51 m3/sec. This weir is still under operation.


Gargaros Weir and Shushtar Watermills

Gargaros Weir and Shushtar Watermills are located 600 m. downstream of Caesar Weir. The crest is 50 m. long, with an altitude of 20 m. This weir doesn’t have any gates or water intake. The water passes through the tunnels which have been excavated at the upper part of the mountains at the both sides.

Watermill

The number of these tunnels are three which have been excavated through the rocks. The longest one is 100 m. These tunnels after passing through the weir are divided into some branches which led water to the inclined shoots of more than 50 watermills. The elevation difference between upstream and downstream created beautiful water falls in front of the weir. Those waterfalls cause Shushtar to become a beautiful sight seeing for tourists. The ex-general secretary of UNESCO highly appreciated during his first visit to those watermills and called them as the first man-made industrial complex before industrial revolution.

Waterfalls and watermills in Shushtar

There are 2 tunnels excavated under the Salasel Castle, almost 300m. to Shushtar Weir. These Tunnels after hundred meters downstream join together and become as the Darion open Canal. This canal on its way towards south west of Shushtar is divided into two branches. The first branch after 33 km.

Darion canal

Darion Canal is older than the other historical water structures which were constructed in Shushtar during by Romans.All the evidences show the water intake procedure of the Darion Canal operated by an old dam before Caesar Dam-Bridge establishment.


Roman pleasure grounds

http://www.gallery.shushtarnama.com/data/media/1/m87.jpg

http://www.allempires.com/forum/uploads/CyrusShahmiri/2005-08-29_095334_Shushtar1.jpg

Shushtar at night

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Some pics of the waterfalls;

http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2005/10/152207_orig.jpg

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Great place for a visit, wouldn't wanna live there though. :cheers:

Great place for a visit, wouldn't wanna live there though. :cheers:


I would neither. But still very nice for a holiday (peepz should build a spa and a resort next to the canals)

Shushtar has the largest Mandaean population in Iran! :)

Religion:
Who Are the Mandaeans (http://www.geocities.com/usamandaean/who.html)
The Mandaeans are a religious sect of great antiquity that still exists in limited numbers in the border territories of southern Iraq and Iran. Neither Christian, Moslem, Jewish nor Zoroasterism, the Mandaean religion contains a variety of ancient elements that attest to their antiquity. Adherents to the faith can be found in the cities and villages in the lands of the lower Euphrates, the lower Tigris, the rivers that surround the Shatt-al-Arab, and in the adjacent Iranian Province of Khuzistan (once called Arabistan).
Their religion is a proto-religion in which they descended from Adam who was the first to receive the religious instructions of the Mandaeans. Their last great teacher and healer was John the Baptist. The origins of both the people and of the religion are one of the continuing mysteries of Mandaean research.

Language:
MANDAIC: a language of Iran (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=MID)
800 to 1,000 speakers in Iran, out of an ethnic group of 5,000 in Khuzistan, Iran who speak Western Farsi. 23,000 ethnic Mandaeans in Iraq all speak Arabic (1994 H. Mutzafi), but some people are reported to be bilingual in Mandaic. Population total both countries 800 to 1,000.

http://iranmanda.com/gallery/BAPTISM/images/44-nim1.jpg

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^^ Interesting facts! :okay:

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French fortress, Chateau de Morgan
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Daniel's tomb
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Ghaleh Salosel
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so beautiful

i reckon we should use that for header?!?

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE
Shushtar, Historical Hydraulic System (Iran)
June 28, 2009 | UNESCO (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1315)

June 28, 2009: The World Heritage Committee holding its 33rd session chaired by María Jesús San Segundo, the Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Spain to UNESCO, has inscribed two new natural sites and 11 cultural sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. It includes...

IRAN - SHUSHTAR
A masterpiece of creative genius, can be traced back to Darius the Great in the 5th century B.C. It involved the creation of two main diversion canals on the river Kârun one of which, Gargar canal, is still in use providing water to the city of Shushtar via a series of tunnels that supply water to mills. It forms a spectacular cliff from which water cascades into a downstream basin. It then enters the plain situated south of the city where it has enabled the planting of orchards and farming over an area of 40,000 ha. known as Mianâb (Paradise). The property has an ensemble of remarkable sites including the Salâsel Castel, the operation centre of the entire hydraulic system, the tower where the water level is measured, damns, bridges, basins and mills. It bears witness to the know-how of the Elamites and Mesopotamians as well as more recent Nabatean expertise and Roman building influence.

[ MORE DETAILS (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1315) ]

Those photos from those ancient roman structures are really awesome

I am not sure what you are talking about. Shushtar's water canals were built by Iranians, not Romans. They were built in Achamenides time and improved by Sassanids kings.Romans never reached this far east. Romans and Iranians had multiple encounters, but they never ruled over each other because neither was defeated by the other.

Medians were an Iranian people, their descendants are probably modern Kurds, it is said Mandaeans are in fact the same ancient Babylonians.

Kurds were called by the same name even at the Achamenides times and they were fairly independent even then. Even Koroush the Great, with his million man army, when needed to cross Zagros mountains paid the kurds instead of engaging them.

In 2009 the Sushtar Hydraulic System became inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List

Brief Description
[Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System]

Shushtar, Historical Hydraulic System, inscribed as a masterpiece of creative genius, can be traced back to Darius the Great in the 5th century B.C. It involved the creation of two main diversion canals on the river Kârun one of which, Gargar canal, is still in use providing water to the city of Shushtar via a series of tunnels that supply water to mills. It forms a spectacular cliff from which water cascades into a downstream basin. It then enters the plain situated south of the city where it has enabled the planting of orchards and farming over an area of 40,000 ha. known as Mianâb (Paradise). The property has an ensemble of remarkable sites including the Salâsel Castel, the operation centre of the entire hydraulic system, the tower where the water level is measured, damns, bridges, basins and mills. It bears witness to the know-how of the Elamites and Mesopotamians as well as more recent Nabatean expertise and Roman building influence.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1315

There are large Bakhtiari and Lori populations in Khuzestan also.

This city is situated in Khuzestan province, Alqrbip of Iraq's borders

Most of the population in this city of Arabs and Kurds, Lors few

Being under this tidal ((Cosstr)) or Shush very old city with a history of more than 5000 years ago
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In this city is from underneath the river Karkheh site you stems from the mountains of snow from the Zagros Mountains in Iran, the great



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Very nice. hope to visit this site some day. Thank you for the pictures Buraimi.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoushtarboys/2117829755/

the title is not really correct im assuming. these are not works of the romans, these ae all made by iranians. rome didnt get this far

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Sushtar_Bridge.jpg

English: Roman-built Band-e Kaisar ("Caesar's dam") in Shushtar, Iran, said to have been built by Roman prisoners during the reign of Shapur I (ca. 260−270 AD). The dam bridge, the most eastern Roman engineering structure, was the first of its kind in Iran.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sushtar_Bridge.jpg

an emamzadeh
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I would neither. But still very nice for a holiday (peepz should build a spa and a resort next to the canals)

Great place for a visit, wouldn't wanna live there though. :cheers:

I know these post date way back.. but I'm just curious to know why you guys wouldn't consider living there?

a hot , messy and under developed place , who would want to live there when they have seen the likes of tehran and such?

Lol i agree...

Khuzestan isn't really seismologically active, right?

Would be sad if an earthquake destroyed all this and such... like the Bam one :ohno:

shoosh is amazing
photos by SinaK from flickr
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shoosh is amazing
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true, but thats shushtar

Shooshtar i mean my bad

Btw is that ur flickr ?

Shooshtar i mean my bad

Btw is that ur flickr ?

nop

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Shushtar is a wonder !

nice video about shushtar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KGAFt0g9JM

Amazing

this place can be an amazing small historic town/small city
it needs proper development though
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