'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOL. III.' [‎172r] (348/982)

and Agha Jarls, who grow rice and linseed and own about 100 sheep.-
( Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Gazetteer, 1908.)
GARGAKl PAINI— Lat.
Long.
Elev.
Lower Gargari is a village in Southern ’Arabistan, 5 miles north-east of
Shirabad on the Lunjir canal. It is inhabited by 400 Lakis, Ghalibis
and Dallamis, who own about 100 sheep and goats and 300 buffaloes. There
is irrigated cultivation here .—( Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Gazetteer, 1908.)
GARGAR (River)—
This channel, the uppermost part of which is artificial, issues from the left
bank of the Karun just above Shushtar, and rejoins that river at Band-i-
Qir. Its direction is thus almost exactly from north to south and its
length in a straight line about 30 miles, but between its extreme points it
forms a regular curve to eastwards, of which the maximum divergence from:
the direct line is about 8 miles. The Gargar forms the eastern boundary
of the Mian-Ab island.
At its head are the remains of a massive barrage, formerly called the Band-
i-Kaisari and later the Band-i-Shahzadeh, and now known as the Band-i-Nur-
gan, built of hewn stone, with six narrow openings through which the water
passes, leaving the crest dry and traversable except when the river is high and
pours over it. Below this barrage the stream flows for J mile through a chan
nel of 100 feet depth, artificially excavated in the sandstone rock : it then
reaches a second dam called Pul-i-Bulaiti which carries the road from Shush
tar to all places east of it. At the Pul-i-BulaitI the water is forced into tun
nels in the precipitous rock, which conduct it through a number of flour-mills
built in the honeycombed rock side of the channel a little farther down.
Below this dam the rock of the banks yields to earth, but the sides continue
to be nearly 100 feet in height till the end of Shushtar town is reached.
Half a mile below the Pul-i-Bulaiti a natural ledge of rocks crosses the
channel, with an opening in it only 20 yards wide but passable for native
river-boats. The stream then splits into three or four small but navigable
channels, and so continues to a point 5 miles lower down, where the river
bed is again nearly traversed by another barrier, partly natural, partly
artificial, by which the course of the stream is considerably deflected
' to the east and made to form an acute angle; this place is called
Mahi-Bazan or Bazaniat, meaning in the Shushtari patois “a place where
fish play ” from the numbers of fish which come there to spawn and
are caught. On the right bank 7 or 8 miles below Shushtar is the
important landing place of Shalaili, above which there is not, for prac
tical purposes, any navigation, either native or European. FromMahi-
bazan to a short distance above Band-i-Qir the Gargar meanders through
low ground several hundred yards broad, enclosed upon either side by
steep clay banks from 40 to 50 feet high, with which the river m its windings
from time to time comes in contact. As Band-i-Qir is approached the high
banks close in upon the river and show remains of brick buildings, vestiges
of the ancient city of ’Askar Mukaram; parts of these are sunk as
much as 10 and even 20 feet below the present surface of the ground.