Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
perity in other regions brought about by
a failure to control irrigation have been,
perhaps, less spectacular but none the less
important. The decay of irrigation and
drainage not only resulted in an increase
of waste and unproductive land, but may
also have led to the spread of malaria,
thus contributing to a decline in popula-
tion and output.
diverted through two by-pass channels.
One of these, the Āb-i Gargar, winds its
way south for some twenty-five miles and
then rejoins the Kārūn. When the work of
the dam was completed, the entrance to
the Āb-i Gargar was closed by a second
dam, the ayar dam. This was made of
large stone blocks mortared and clamped
together, and six sluices were provided
to control the flow of water into the Āb-i
Gargar. Part of the bridge at · ū ª tar
and the Band were swept away by floods
several times during the 19th century.
Muammad Alī Mīrzā, when governor
of Kirmān ª āh, undertook repairs to it in
the early 19th century. When Curzon vis-
ited · ū ª tar in 1889, there was a gap of
over seventy yards in width in the middle
of the bridge, which had been swept away
by a flood in 1885. The efforts of Niām
al-Salana, the governor of Arabistān, to
repair it proved abortive. A further canal,
the Miyān Āb canal, was cut, apparently
to divert water through a tunnel made in
the face of the castle rock in order to irri-
gate the high-lying lands to the south of
the city, the level of the water of which
was regulated by dams. As a result of
the rupture in the Band-i Mīzān and the
bridge, the river bed was lowered at the
point where it formerly fed the canal and
the land which is was intended to irrigate
became derelict.
The Dizful dam, a replica of the · ū ª tar
dam, was 1,250 ft. long. When Curzon
visited Dizful, the dam was in a dilapi-
dated condition, two of its arches having
recently fallen in. After it fell into decay,
all local irrigation depended upon rough
dams of stone and brush-wood, which
were reconstructed after every flood.
South of · ū ª tar, where the Āb-i Diz
and the Āb-i Gargar flow into the Āb-i
· utayt, the main channel of the Kārūn,
another Sāsānid dam, the Band-i īr,
of which only the name survives, was
Water utilisation: technical features
Irrigation works, plain take-offs, dams,
weirs, lifting devices, artificial reservoirs
and anāt s, supplemented by principal
and secondary canals, are to be found all
over the country; and some are ancient
structures.
(i) Dams
Several large dams existed in ūzistān
in Sāsānid times, including the bridge
dams at · ū ª tar and Dizful, built by
· āpūr I and · āpūr II or Arda ª īr II
respectively, the dam on the arrāī
near alafābād, and the dam on the
Mārūn at Arra ¡ ān. They continued in
use for varying periods after the fall of
the Sāsānids. Repairs and reconstructions
were numerous, and the Romano-Sāsānid
work at · ū ª tar and Dizful was partially
replaced by pointed-arch bridges. The dam
at · ū ª tar, known as the Band-i Mīzān,
had a length of 1,700 ft. and raised the
water to the level of the city of · ū ª tar,
which was situated on a rocky outcrop on
the east bank of the Kārūn. The dam was
built partly by Roman prisoners of war
taken in · āpūr I's victory over Valerian
in A.D. 260. It had a rubble masonry core
set in hydraulic mortar; the facing was of
large, cut masonry blocks, held in place by
both mortar and iron clamps set in lead.
It was pierced by numerous sluices for
the purpose of releasing water in time of
excessive flow. It took three years to build,
during which time the Kārūn River was
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