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WonderHydraulic engineering fact

The Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System in Iran is a network of dams, bridges, tunnels, canals and mills on the Karun River, much of it built in the 3rd century CE. It watered farmland, supplied the town and drove water mills.

Khuzestan, Iran, 3rd century CE

EngineeringArchitectureHistoryTechnology

The story behind the card

Tradition traces the first canals at Shushtar to the Persian king Darius the Great in the 5th century BCE, but the system's key works belong to the Sasanian Empire. The Band-e Kaisar, or Caesar's Dam, a weir about 500 metres long across the Karun, is said to have been built by Roman soldiers captured when the Sasanian king Shapur I defeated the emperor Valerian in 260 CE. It raised the river so that water could be led into canals and rock-cut tunnels, where it drove mills and fed fields before pouring down a series of falls into a basin below the town. Thirteen dams, bridges and other works operated as one system. UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 2009.

Türkçe oku
İran'daki Şuştar Tarihî Su Sistemi, Karun Nehri üzerinde bentlerden, köprülerden, tünellerden, kanallardan ve değirmenlerden oluşan bir ağdır; büyük bölümü MS 3. yüzyılda yapıldı. Tarlaları suladı, kente su verdi ve değirmenleri döndürdü.
Huzistan, İran, MS 3. yüzyıl

Rivayete göre Şuştar'daki ilk kanallar MÖ 5. yüzyılda Pers kralı I. Darius döneminde açıldı; ama sistemin asıl yapıları Sasani İmparatorluğu'ndan kalmadır. Karun Nehri'ni yaklaşık 500 metre boyunca kesen Bend-i Kayser'i (Kayser'in Bendi), Sasani hükümdarı I. Şapur'un 260'ta Roma İmparatoru Valerianus'u yenmesinden sonra esir alınan Romalı askerlerin yaptığı söylenir. Bent nehrin seviyesini yükseltir, suyu kanallara ve kayaya oyulmuş tünellere yönlendirirdi. Su, değirmenleri döndürüp tarlaları suladıktan sonra bir dizi çağlayanla kentin altındaki bir havuza dökülürdü. On üç bent, köprü ve öteki yapı tek bir sistem gibi çalışıyordu. UNESCO, sistemi 2009'da Dünya Mirası listesine aldı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System
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