The amazing dam in Shushtar— Beautiful Iran 13

The Shushutar Historical Hydraulic system

We arrived in Shushtar, about 90km from Ahvaz, in the late afternoon of April 24. The Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System was our final destination of that day. It was designated as the World Heritage Site in 2009 by UNESCO.

When we got off the tour bus in the center of the city, the sun was still in the air, but a cool breeze was blowing from somewhere. Our guide Mr. Musa led us through a crowded street to the very site. 

Shushtar was an ancient fortress city on the island in the Karun River. The etymology of Shushtar is “greater Shush (Susa).” During the Sassanid period (224-651) Shushtar was run as the summer capital of the empire. We can imagine that the people would have retreated there to avoid the burning heat in the summer season of this region. 

It was already hot in the middle of spring. After five-minute walk, we came down the brick stairs to the water’s edge. We found ourselves standing on the overflow dam that consisted of some water-use facilities. The river formed a huge water basin before us. Water was cascading into it from several holes of the surrounding rock cliff. White splash of water contrasted with the light-brown cliff and the brick architecture attached to it. Many waterfowls were flying over and swimming in the olive-green basin. The wind blew up and carried water spray to us. It was an amazing view.

Mr. Musa spoke loudly against the sound of water, “This Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System originally started as an irrigation system. It seems to date back to Darius the Great in the 5th century B.C., but it is archaeologically proved that the whole system was built in the 3rd century, the Sassanid period.”

The river forms a moat around the city as well as the basin which supplies water through subterranean channels called Ghanats not only to the city but also to its surrounding farms for irrigation. 

Mr. Musa led us downstairs to a pit of the dam, which was a water mill chamber. He went down to the bottom of the pit and showed us the stone mill, saying “It is moved by the water running under to produce wheat flour or mortar. That is a part of the system.” The mill seemed not to have been used for a long time. However, the water flowing through the canal from the river and falling into the well by the mill chamber had ever rotated the mill just under the grinding stone!

The bottom of the pit 

There were several similar pits with a stone mill each, which are today out of date and just a tourist attraction. 

We climbed through the stairs to the second floor, where there was an obsolete and rusted hydroelectric generator. In 1973 Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1919-80), the last emperor in Iran, built it to revitalize the stagnated economy of Shushtar. However, the electricity generated by it only benefited the houses around there. 

The Karun River is the biggest river in Iran. In the long history, it must have been the biggest challenge for the people living in the valley to “manage the river”―control floods, supply water to farms, and even harness the power of water. The Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System is the role model that shows us the Iranian wisdom.

Iranian bakery

On the way back to the tour bus, we passed by some bakeries making nan, oven-baked flatbread. Mr. Musa bought a few pieces of nan just baked and shared them with us. They were still hot, savory and tasty. In old days the ancestors of the bakers there may have used the wheat flour that had been produced at the water mill in the pit. I felt a fresh breeze from the Karun River again.

The dwelling place of Gods - Beautiful Iran 12

The ziggurat of Choga Zambil

“We are going to the site of the ancient holy place. The people believed Gods dwelled there,” our tour guide Mr. Musa solemnly spoke to us. He meant Chogha Zanbil, 80 km north of the city of Ahvaz.

It was over 36℃ outside the airport, with the sizzling sun in the blue sky. We ran into another tour bus, when a local driver gunned the engine, starting the air-conditioner in full swing. Our tour driver Mr. Golam seemed to be running the tour bus on the way to Ahvaz after he dropped us at the airport of Rasht.

Choga Zambil means ‘basket mound,’ which is actually a large hill. There was a step pyramid called ‘ziggurat,’ which was built in many places of the ancient Mesopotamian valley and the plateau of western Iran. The ziggurat is recognized as a huge religious facility. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, at the top of the ziggurat was a temple. 

We arrived in Choga Zambil around noon. The sun was just above the head. We stepped out in the midst of a broad desert area, without shade except a few groves and a small brick-made rest room among them. Everything looked like being covered with whitish brown. 

We walked out in the sun. Then I suddenly understood the significance of the Islamic dress code. Our women covered their head with a scarf to prevent the sunshine as well as to avoid men’s eyes. Without covering, sunburn would have given a serious damage to their skin. Apparently, men needed more than a hat.

Mr. Musa explained, “It was built about 1250 BC by the king of Elam, Untash-Napirisha. It is like a castle or town protected by the triple walls. The whole site was made of mud bricks. A great ziggurat stands in the center of the inner area. The middle area has more than twenty temples surrounding it. The outer area has royal palaces and five royal tombs under the ground.”

Today the ziggurat is 25m high

The ziggurat was today, with the base105 m square, only three-storied and 25m high, but originally estimated to rise to a height of 50 m with the additional two stages. It was considered to be the best preserved of all the ziggurats and listed on the UNESCO world heritage in 1979.

“Why did the ancient people build such a high ziggurat here?” I asked Mr. Musa. “They believed that ziggurat connected heaven and earth. The gods who come and go between heaven and earth dwell on the ziggurat. Only priests were permitted to climb it to take care of the gods,” he answered. 

It was equipped with staircases, but we were not permitted to climb. We just walked around it. It was too hot, too dry. We were getting tired. Some local workers were repairing the brick walls. They would work all day under the scorching sun. It was a tough job! More than three millennium before, the ancient people had worked hard here to build up the ziggurat.

it is a tough job to work under the scorching sun!

King Untash-Napirisha originally lived in Susa and started to build Choga Zanbil as a new religious city. The ziggurat was dedicated to the great god Inshushinak, the protector deity of Susa, which the king worshipped. The original building was not mud color, but was decorated with gold and silver bricks, black opal and white stone. However, after his death, the construction abruptly ended for some reason we don’t know.

In the late afternoon we visited Susa, 30 km east of Choga zanbil. Susa is Shush in Persian. The ancient site of Susa is located near the modern city of Shush. 

Susa has a long history from some 5000 years ago. The name is mentioned as Shushan in the Hebrew Bible; the book of Esther, Nehemiah, and Daniel. As I mentioned in the 5th article of this series, “Good memories of Hamadan,” Esther was a Jewish queen of King Ahasuerus of the Achaemenid Empire, who saved the Jews from genocide. Daniel and Nehemiah lived in Susa during the Babylonian captivity of the 6th century B.C.

The tomb of Daniel

On the hill of Susa Mr. Musa directed our attention to the tower of white stone cone in the city which is said to be the tomb of the prophet Daniel. According to the Bible story, he was carried off to Babylon by the king Nebuchadnezzar who had conquered Jerusalem. After the Persian conquest of Babylon, he became senior administrator of the empire to serve Darius the Mede. 

We visited the archaeological site. According to Mr. Musa, Susa was the capital of ancient Elam and later became a part of the Persian Empire under the conquest of Cyrus II, the Great in 538 B.C. Later it became the winter capital of Achaemenian kings. Darius I the Great and his son Xerxes ran the great palace which can be compared to Persepolis. Unfortunately, Alexander the Great conquered Susa in 330 B.C. 

The archaeological site of Susa

We walked around the ruins of the apadana palace in the northern part. There remained many fragments of broken stone walls, pillars, and columns. The huge size of the surviving pedestal of columns made me think how colossal the palace had been. Mr. Musa added, “The site has been greatly harmed by illegal excavations and robberies. During the Iran-Iraq war it was destroyed by Iraqi bombardment.”

The excavation of the ruins of Susa was started by Henry Rawlinson (1810-95), who studied the inscription of Behistun, and came English archaeologists, followed by French. They brought back unearthed artifacts, legally or illegally, to their home countries. As a result, it is ironical enough that we can face the reminiscence of Darius’s glory at the Louvre museum in Paris today.