Khuzestan is a beautiful province with wonderful nature, including many waterfalls and mountains. This land can be called the origin of many civilizations around the world.
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This report is really about the whole province of Khusestan but Shush is probably the best of all its cities so I have picked that as the title for the report.
Khuzestan is a vast province which is located in the west-south of Iran, beside the neighboring country �Iraq� .Here the climate is almost hot, so the best time for visiting is early in spring. Last year in March we had a trip to this area. I had never seen Khuzestan before and I had heard about its hot weather, but much to my surprise I encountered roads bordered by green grass, mountains with lots of beautiful trees, cool wind but a terrible sunshine in the afternoon!
�Zagros� mountains surround Khuzestan in the west ,but the middle contains jungles and waterfalls. �Karun�, one of the longest and largest rivers of Iran, passes along the province and ends in the Persian gulf.
Most cities of Khuzestan have beautiful views to Karun river .
In Khuzestan palm trees are very common.
Khuzestan is very rich in petroleum. There are many dams over rivers passing through the province which produce energy. Some Arab tribe live here.
Also the �Bakhtiary� tribe live in the mountains of north Khuzestan. They are very clever; they found us a few moments after we reached Shimbar waterfall! Some locals told us they can be dangerous if they feel anyone disturbing.
We begun our journey from Tehran .we went to Khorram Abad in Lorestan province and then we entered Khuzestan.
�Ahvaz �is the center of Khuzestan. Some other interesting cities are Dezful, Shush (the most astonishing one), Shushtar, Eazeh, Masjed-e-Soleiman, Abadan, Khorram Shahr, and some important harbors such as �Bandar-e-Khomeini � .
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Shimbar waterfall was the greatest feature of Khuzestan in my eyes! The nearest city to the waterfall is “Masjed-e-Soleiman”
For reaching the waterfall you must have a guide, or exactly ask locals which way to pass way to go. There is no special road to it; just a little town is the end of the roads.
We stayed the night in the town, and slept in the only school that existed there; the teacher of the school was very kind, welcoming us and sitting around a fire in coldness of night, she told us nice stories about locals to the middle of the night.
She gave us some very beautiful traditional dress of the town. Iranian women long ago used such dressing but nowadays modern Iranian woman do not wear such cloths .only in some small towns you may find it.
early in the morning we climbed up the mountains and after 4 hours walking we reached a peaceful lake, but suddenly this calm lake ends to a very heavy river and waterfall.
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apadana,remains of king "daryush' palace for passing winter
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The nature of “Shimbar” area is so wonderful. I have put some pictures of the lake, mountains and the waterfall in globo as well. Beauty of the lake, fading in red and grey mountains is really fabulous !
There, we started the new year. [How Iranians begin the new year needs another long report that I am about to make it ready for globo in near future ]
We had our “haft seen ” - (or seven “s “,which is 7 holy symbols that we place together on the earth and all the family sit around it to begin the new year) - near the river. We have a belief saying: a year which is good can be diagnosed from it’s spring ,it means how one starts the year will be his fortune for the coming year .[and we begun the year in the fresh music of the waterfall ! ;-) ]
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iranian traditional dressing of khuzestan
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Khuzestan is the origin of many ancient civilizations all over the world. History of this area goes back to 6000 years ago.
Here, lot’s of very old buildings were found during exploration..
Among the places we visited Shush was the most special one, maybe one of the oldest cities of the world! This city is located in the west of Khuzestan.
“Elamite” or “Elami” dynasty, belonging to 4000 years BC, lived in shush.
I remember our guide said where ever you excavate in shush, it is impossible not to find an antique remain !
UNESCO has called this city : Common Inheritance of Mankind .
Most interesting places in shush are: Apadana palace, Shush Castle, tomb of prophet Daniel, Haft Tappe (7 hills) , Zighurat Temple, Shush museum, “Shahr-e-Shahy” (king ‘s city) and ancient Acropole hills.
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About settling I must say that in main cities of Khuzstan you can find hotels, but sorrily in Shush finding a good restaurant or a hotel is really hard. so I recommend that you stay in another city like Ahvaz, and have a short journey for a day to Shush.
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In the year 521 BC “Daryush “, king of Hakahmaneshian, chose shush as his winter capital.
There he built a beautiful palace called “Apadana “. It’s pillars, which are 15 meters high, although damaged during ages, still exist gloriously .
Near the palace there exist a castle who is so similar to “Bastille prison “ of France.
This castle is built from brick in the year 1897 over Acropole Hills. The castle had been built for a group of French archaeologists, .nowadays the antiques found in Apadana is kept there.
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“haft tappe " is seven old hills in shush.
Here some cemeteries as old as 5000 years have been found. People of that time used to have cavities under their houses where they buried the members of the family who passed away. but they believed that their soul will be alive .so they used to put food and clothes with the dead body.
there we saw the houses, also by the explorations done, the cavities is visible and even some very old bones of Elami people!
Nearby a very interesting museum exist who contains things found in the area during explorations.
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the picture you see in this part belongs to our “4shanbe soory” in the town near Shimbar..
this is a very old Iranian custom, remained from 3000 years ago.
On the last Tuesday of the year, at night, we make fires and jump over it, wishing for health in all the new year.
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Masjed-e-soleiman is another interesting city of Khuzestan .Near the city there is an old fire temple probably belonging to Sasani and Parti period (Parts, Mads, and Parse were of the first tribes who came to Iran ).
also some signs of cavemen belonging to prehistoric ages have been found in this area.
A story says that fire first used in human life have been found here.
The modern city has importance in oil matters.
Generally I must say that most cities of Khuzestan are ineteresting and really deserve to be visited. Beauty of Persian Gulf beach is very famous but sorrily we did not have enough time to visit the harbors.
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Between Shush and Shushtar, there’s the fabulous “ Zighurat “ or “choghazanbil “ temple, belonging to over 5000 years ago..
The name choghazanbil means “resembling a basket”.because it has 5 floors over eachother getting smaller and smaller to the roof, so the whole shape resembles a basket .
Zighurat is made of firm bricks in size of 35*35*10. The material of the bricks is under investigations to realize what has made them so strong that during ages they stand still. In the past all its walls have had beautiful shapes and colors but during ages they have vanished.
The temple was built by Sumeri dynasty and has been presented to two of their Gods.
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According to our guide, each floor of the temple did belong to a special category of people. the 4th floor belonged to priests and the 5th to the king.
Around the temple there are rooms that are known to be used by hermits worshiping god.
A vast area around the temple contains the city and some other temples, who are still under the ground .Some epigraphs have been found in the temple, explaining the name of people who built it and reasons that create the temple..
And also if you go to Khuzestan, do not forget to visit the beautiful Persian gulf in the south as well.
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Published on Saturday April 8th, 2006
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Thu, Jul 17 2008 - 12:48 PM
 by kaistorgaard
Fantastic travel report, it realy makes me wanting to go there, and the history of the place is just amacing, thanks a lot.
Kai |
Wed, Feb 28 2007 - 05:47 PM
by biauwe.de
Mon, Feb 12 2007 - 01:18 PM
by travler
| I learned a lot about Iran from reading both your reports. |
Mon, Sep 25 2006 - 10:39 AM
by mrscanada
| If that is you in one of the pictures you are beautiful. Fabulous review. |
Sat, Apr 22 2006 - 09:10 PM
by marcosfonsec
| Great report! Congratulations! |
Tue, Apr 18 2006 - 11:12 AM
by magsalex
| Very good report. I loved the pictures especially the one of karun. |
Mon, Apr 10 2006 - 11:26 PM
by bagheri
very beatifull sensitive and informative report
some times I thought I am with you and some times I live in past |
Mon, Apr 10 2006 - 12:03 PM
by st.vincent
| Lots of good information about local customs, and well written. |
Mon, Apr 10 2006 - 08:07 AM
by sajjanka
| Jan its really a great report,u sketched it very well and all photos are very nice.I welcome u.Khuzestan great view u told us,Thanks i granted u 5*. |
Sun, Apr 09 2006 - 10:21 AM
by alfonsovasco
| Very elaborated and well written report! |
Sun, Apr 09 2006 - 06:06 AM
by ravinderkumarsi
hii,this is a excellent report
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Sun, Apr 09 2006 - 02:30 AM
by davidx
| Terrific pictures and good information. Iran should make you an ambassadress! |
Sat, Apr 08 2006 - 11:35 PM
 by marianne
Farnaz,
Very interesting and beautiful photos. |
Sat, Apr 08 2006 - 11:17 PM
by frenchfrog
| A well completed report, well written, lots of info provided. Well done |
Sat, Apr 08 2006 - 06:51 PM
by gloriajames
hiya farnaz,
a wonderful report and thanks for transporting back to time 6000 yrs ago! hope to see more reports from u and how about a slideshow on this location? |
Sat, Apr 08 2006 - 02:24 PM
by bootlegga
| A very interesting report on an under-reported part of the world. I hope we see more like it in the future! |
Sat, Apr 08 2006 - 02:16 PM
by jorgesanchez
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