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24-740: The Bahamanshir served as the main estuary of the Karun River before the digging of the Haffar canal, by the Daylamite Buwayhid king Panah Khusraw Adud ad-Dawlah , that joined the Karun to the Arvand Rud / Shatt al-Arab waterway at the site of the present-day Khorramshahr . The Haffar in time became the main estuary of the Karun , relegating the Bahmanshir to a secondary estuary status. The river's name

48-424: A dam built in a narrow, rocky gorge to hold back water in a reservoir. The dam is curved. Because of the arch shape, the force of the backed up water presses downward against the dam and has the effect of strengthening the dam foundation. The dam withholds a reservoir with a surface area of 29 square kilometres (11 sq mi) and capacity of 2.19 cubic kilometres (1,780,000 acre⋅ft). The dam's first study

72-465: A reservoir from the southeast passin through it in a narrow canyon, now in a northwest direction, past Izeh , eventually winding into the Sussan Plain. The Karun then turns north into the reservoir of Shahid Abbaspour Dam (Karun-1), which floods the river's defile to the southwest. The Karun flows southwest into the impoundment of Masjed Soleyman Dam (Karun-2), then turns northwest. Finally, it leaves

96-670: A result of Iran's construction of new dams on the Karun. The new dams resulted in high levels of salinity in the Arvand Roud (Shatt al-Arab) , which destroyed farm areas and threatened livestock in that Iraqi Basra area. Civilians in the area were forced to evacuate. There are a number of dams on the Karun River, mainly built to generate hydroelectric power and provide flood control . Gotvand Dam , Masjed Soleyman Dam , Karun-1 ( Shahid Abbaspour Dam ), Karun-3 , and Karun-4 , most of them owned by

120-667: A river in Iran is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Karun The Karun ( Persian : کارون , IPA: [kɒːˈɾuːn] ) is the Iranian river with the highest water flow, and the country's only navigable river . It is 950 km (590 mi) long. The Karun rises in the Zard Kuh mountains of the Bakhtiari district in the Zagros Range , receiving many tributaries, such as

144-515: Is a corruption of the name Kuhrang , which is still maintained by one of the two primary tributaries of the Karun. J. G. Lorimer also records in his Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia that it was known by the name "Dujail," which could be translated "Little Tigris," to medieval Arab and Persian geographers . It originates in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, on

168-403: Is around 950 kilometres (590 mi) long and has an average discharge of 575 cubic metres per second (20,300 cu ft/s). The largest city on the river is Ahvaz , with over 1.3 million inhabitants. Other important cities include Shushtar, Khorramshahr (a port), Masjed-Soleyman , and Izeh. Much of Khuzestan's transport and resources are connected in one way or another to the Karun. Since

192-512: The British first discovered oil at Masjed Soleyman , the Karun has been an important route for the transport of petroleum to the Persian Gulf , and remains an important commercial waterway. Water from the Karun provides irrigation to over 280,000 hectares (690,000 acres) of the surrounding plain and a further 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) are planned to receive water. Karun River lies between

216-641: The Dez and the Kuhrang . It passes through the city of Ahvaz , the capital of the Khuzestan Province of Iran, before emptying to its mouth into Arvand Rud . The Karun continues toward the Persian Gulf , forking into two primary branches on its delta – the Bahmanshir and the Haffar – that join the Arvand Rud , emptying into the Persian Gulf. The important Island of Abadan is located between these two branches of

240-667: The Sassanid era , whence the name of the bridge and dam Band-e Kaisar , " Caesar 's dam", at Shushtar (3rd century AD). In two of several competing theories about the origins and location of the Garden of Eden , the Karun is presumed to be the Gihon River described in the Biblical book of Genesis . The strongest of these theories, propounded by archaeologist Juris Zarins , places the Garden of Eden at

264-728: The Susa plain, the location of the ancient cultures dating back to the fifth millennium BC and, to the south, the newly discovered ancient culture of the Zohreh River plain from the same period. The principal ancient site being excavated near the Zohreh River is Tol-e Chega Sofla , which has many parallels with Susa. Later, the Karun valley was also inhabited by the Elamite civilization which rose about 2,700 BC. At several points in history, Mesopotamian civilizations such as Ur and Babylon overthrew

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288-413: The peaking power sector of Iran's electricity grid, and when completed, Karun-4 will also generate 1,000 MW. There are also many dams on the river's tributaries. Dez Dam , Bakhtiari Dam (under construction) and Khersan-3 Dam (under construction) are among them. Khersan 1, Khersan 2, Zalaki, Liro, Roudbar Lorestan, Bazoft, and others are proposed. The dams on the Karun have had a significant effect on

312-475: The sediment transport and the ecology of the river, and have required the relocation of thousands of residents. [REDACTED] Media related to Karun River at Wikimedia Commons 30°25′39″N 48°09′55″E  /  30.4275°N 48.1653°E  / 30.4275; 48.1653 Karun-4 Dam The Karun-4 Dam is an arch dam on the Karun River located 180 km southwest of Shahr-e-Kord in

336-700: The Elamites and gained control of the Karun and its surroundings in modern Khuzestan. However, the Elamite empire lasted until about 640 BC, when the Assyrians overran it. The city of Susa , near the modern city of Shush between the Dez and Karkheh rivers, was one of their largest before it was destroyed by the invaders. The first known major bridge across the river was built by the Roman captives that included its emperor Valerianus in

360-496: The Iran Water and Power Resources Development Co., are all on the main stem. Karun-2 would potentially be located in the Sussan Plain between Shahid Abbaspour and Karun-3, but the project is still under consideration because of concern over submerging archaeological sites. A Karun-5 dam upstream of Karun-4 has also been proposed. The Masjed Soleyman, Shahid Abbaspour, and Karun-3 dams each generate 1,000–2,000 MW of power to service

384-763: The Karun. The port city of Khorramshahr is divided from the Island of Abadan by the Haffar branch. Juris Zarins and other scholars have identified the Karun as one of the four rivers of Eden (Gihon), the others being the Tigris , the Euphrates , and either the Wadi al-Batin or the Karkheh . In early classical times, the Karun was known as the Pasitigris . The modern medieval and modern name, Karun,

408-568: The foothills and flows south past Shushtar and its confluence with the Dez . It then bends southwest, bisecting the city of Ahvaz , and south through farmland to its mouth on the Arvand Roud at Khorramshahr , where its water, together with that of the Tigris and Euphrates , turns sharply southeast to flow to the Persian Gulf . The largest river by discharge in Iran, the Karun River's watershed covers 65,230 square kilometres (25,190 sq mi) in parts of two Iranian provinces. The river

432-538: The northern tip of the Persian Gulf, fed by the four rivers Tigris, the Euphrates, Gihon (Karun) and Pishon ( Wadi al-Batin ). In 1888, during a period of increasing British influence in southern Iran , Lynch Brothers opened the first regular steamship service on the river linking Khorramshahr and Ahvaz . The name of the river is derived from the mountain peak, Kuhrang, which serves as its source. The film documentary, Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925), tells

456-455: The province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari , Iran . The Karun has the highest discharge of all the Iranian rivers. Its construction is aimed at generating hydroelectric power supply of 2,107 million kWh annually and controlling floods in the upper Karun. The dam is a concrete double curvature arch-type and 230 metres (750 ft) high from the foundation. The arch dam design is an ideal one for

480-481: The seafaring vessels from the Persian Gulf all the way up to city of Ahwaz in the heartland of Khuzistan plain—120 miles away. Without the Bahmanshir, the waters of the Karun —like those of the Tigris and the Euphrates largely fed the vast marshlands of southern Mesopotamia that included the entire southern half of the Khuzistan as well—allowing for no navigable course to exist. This article related to

504-633: The slopes of 4,221 m (13,848 ft) Zard-Kuh . The river flows south and west through several prominent mountain ridges and receives additional water from the Vanak on the south bank and the Bazoft on the north. These tributaries add to the catchment of the river above the Karun-4 Dam . 25 kilometres (16 mi) downstream, the Karun widens into the reservoir formed by the Karun-3 Dam . The Khersan flows into

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528-631: The story of the Bakhtiari tribe crossing this river. It was here during the Iran–Iraq War that the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces stopped the early Iraqi Armed Forces advance. With its limited military stocks, Iran unveiled its " human wave " assaults which used thousands of Basij (Popular Mobilization Army or People's Army) volunteers. In September 2009, three districts of Basra province in southern Iraq were declared disaster-hit areas as

552-454: Was a contraction of Vahman-Ardashir , Middle Persian for the "Good thought of Ardashir," named for the Sasanian king, Ardashir I . The Bahamanshir may be a man-made canal, "thought up" by king Ardashir, as the Haffar later came to be. If so, then the Bahmanshir was excavated to deliver the waters of the mighty Karun directly to the Persian Gulf , creating a navigable estuary that could bring

576-470: Was conducted in 1995 and river diversion began in 1997. Concrete pouring began in 2006 and the power plant began producing electricity in November 2010. On December 11, 2010, the second generator for the dam became operational and was connected to the grid. The dam will eventually have an installed capacity of 1,020 MW. The dam was inaugurated on 6 July 2011 by Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad . It

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