Zagros
Centuries later, the Persian king Shapur I (241-272 CE) offered the Jews in the Sasanian empire a white Nisaean stallion, just in case that the Messiah, who was thought to ride a donkey or a mule, would come.
| home : index : picture archive : Iran : photos by Marco Prins; text Jona Lendering © | ||
Zagros |
||
| Unless otherwise indicated, pictures on this page © Marco Prins and Jona Lendering. Photos can be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes, but you have to acknowledge Livius. | ||
|
|
The Zagros mountains can be found in western Iran and separate the alluvial plains of Assyria and Babylonia from the Iranian highland. These snowy mountains are between Qazvin (west of Tehran) and Hamadan (ancient Ecbatana, the capital of Media). The picture was taken in February; there's not always snow. | |
|
|
The northeastern Zagros mountains are intersected by large, fertile plains, which made Media one of the richest parts of the region. Rainfall is about 800 mm/year. This is somewhere between Hamadan and Konkobar (Kangavar), along the road to Kermanshah. This route was always very important, because it is the main corridor from Central-Iraq (Opis, Baghdad) to Central Iran (Rhagae, Tehran) and beyond (Maracanda, Samarkand). | |
|
On this photo, you can see the crossing from Hamadan to Kangavar, the highest pass in this part of the west-east route. You're looking to the west. | |
|
|
This road was to become part of the famous Silk road, which connected China with Sogdia, Media, Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean. This picture shows the Nisaean plain, which was once well-known for its horses and clover (medicago sativa, "purple medic"; alternatively, alvalva). | |
|
|
The Nisaean horses were so famous in the ancient world,
that c.130
BCE, the Chinese emperor Han Wu-ti (141-87) sent an important courtier
named Chang Ch'ien to buy them.
Although he failed
in his mission, the result of his voyage was the opening of the Silk
road.
Centuries later, the Persian king Shapur I (241-272 CE) offered the Jews in the Sasanian empire a white Nisaean stallion, just in case that the Messiah, who was thought to ride a donkey or a mule, would come. |
|
|
|
The rock of Behistun, dominating the road from Hamadan to Kermanshah. On the southern slope (left), the Achaemenid king Darius I the Great created his famous victory monument, a long inscription and a relief (more...). | |
|
|
In the western Zagros, this is the country of the Cossaeans, a nomadic tribe near modern Khorammabad, which is still the capital of a nomadic tribe, the Luri's. As said, the country is fertile. It has been maintained that the neolithic revolution, i.e., the invention of agriculture, started in the Zagros. | |
|
|
This picture was taken in the southern Zagros, east of Ahvaz. In the central Zagros, there is sufficient rain to create rivers (more then 220 mm/year), but not enough to create forests. As a result, the rivers, full of mud, can cut deep into the landscape and create deep canyons. Here, the layers of the earth are clearly visible. | |
|
The Zagros is a geologist's paradise, as this picture of these impressive incisions clearly shows. Some stratums are harder than other... | |
|
|
... which explains this typical pattern in the Karkheh river, the ancient Choaspes. Other rivers that have their sources in the Zagros are the Dez (Eulaeus), Karun (Pasitigris), and Marun. The sediments they take away from the Zagros are deposited in the plain of Khuzestan (ancient Elam). | |
|
|
The Persian gate, north of modern Yasuj. The Zagros -or, to be more precise, the Marun river- was the natural boundary between ancient Elam and Persis. In the winter of 331/330 BCE, Alexander the Great forced his way through this pass. | |
|
|
Descending from the Persian gate, he continued through this landscape (near Ardakan) and reached Persepolis. In April 330, he set it afire. | |
|
||
|
|
||