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The KarunAlso spelled Karoon or Karoun. (, ), the Ancient Greek Eulaeus ( or Εὐλαῖος, Hebrew Ulai (), is the river with the highest water flow, and the country's only navigable river. It is long. The Karun rises in the Zard Kuh mountains of the Bakhtiari people district in the Zagros Range, receiving many tributaries, such as the Dez River and the Kuhrang. It passes through the city of Ahvaz, the capital of the Khuzestan Province of Iran, before emptying to its mouth into Shatt al-Arab.Karun River, Encyclopædia Iranica at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karun
The Karun continues toward the Persian Gulf, forking into two primary branches on its river 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 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.
The Khersan River flows into 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 the foothills and flows south past Shushtar and its confluence with the Dez River. 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.
Much of Khuzestan's transport and resources are connected in one way or another to the Karun. Since the United Kingdom 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 of the surrounding plain and a further are planned to receive water.
Later, the Karun valley was also inhabited by the civilization which rose about 2,700 BC. At several points in history, civilizations such as Ur and Babylon overthrew 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 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 Empire captives that included its emperor Valerianus in the Sasanian Empire, 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 described in the Biblical book of Genesis."And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Cush." (Genesis, 2:13) The strongest of these theories, propounded by archaeologist Juris Zarins, places the Garden of Eden at 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, (1925), tells 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 a result of Iran's construction of new dams on the Karun. The new dams resulted in high levels of salinity in the Shatt al-Arab, which destroyed farm areas and threatened livestock in that Iraqi Basra area. Civilians in the area were forced to evacuate.
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 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 the sediment transport and the ecology of the river, and have required the relocation of thousands of residents.
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