Kazerun is a town in Fars province, Iran, situated on a plain
among high limestone ridges on the north-south trunk road
between Shiraz and Bushehr. The town is extensive, with
well-built houses. It is surrounded by date palms, citrus orchards, and wheat
and tobacco fields; rice, cotton, and vines also are grown.
The ruins of the ancient city of Bishapur, which are situated 19 km north,
have Sassanid (c 224–651 AD) bas-reliefs and, in a lofty cave, a statue of
Shapur I (241–272 AD).
In addition to the historical monuments, Kazerun has a
beautiful natural sights such as Parishan Lake, Shapur River, Famour and Jareh
narcissus field, etc.
429. "Parishan"
Lake (means "disconsolate" in Persian), some 12km away from Kazerun,
with an area of about 4300 hectares is a very beautiful lake in the Fars
Province, Iran. The lake is not only a very nice eco-park for tourists
and a homeland for about 300 native/migratory waterbird and fish
species, but also has the following importances:
438 & 439. A duck swimming in the lake with her chicks
440. A beautiful shot of the lake while boating there. Thanks to my
camera which has an anti-shaking mode!
441. Parishan Lake
442. Parishan Lake
443. Parishan Lake
444 to 446. Parishan Lake
447 to 450. Parishan Lake
451 to 453. Parishan Lake
454. Ancient city of Bishapur
is situated 19km north of Kazerun on the ancient road between
Persis and
Elam. The road linked the
Sassanid capitals
"Estakhr" and "Ctesiphon".
According to an inscription, the city itself was founded
in
266 by
Shapur I (241-272 AD), who was the second Sassanid
king, restored the borders of the empire to where they
had been in the
Achaemenid Persian period, inflicting a triple
defeat on the Romans. In his native province of
Fars, he built a new capital that would measure up
to his ambitions: Bishapur, Shapur's City. The
city was not laid out in the circular design inherited
from the Parthians, but followed the grid (Hippodamian)
plan used by the Greeks. Outside the city, Shapur
decorated the sides of the Bishapur River gorge with
huge historical reliefs commemorating his triple triumph
over Rome. One of these reliefs, in a semicircular
shape, has rows of registers with files of soldiers and
horses, in a deliberate imitation of the narrative
scenes on the Trajan column in Rome. At Bishapur the
king also inaugurated the Sassanid imagery of the king's
investiture, which would be copied by his successors:
the king and the god are face to face, often on
horseback, and the god - usually Ahura Mazda - is
holding the royal diadem out to the sovereign.
The
city was built by
Roman soldiers who had been captured after
Valerian I defeat in
260 AD. However, it was not a completely new
settlement: archaeologists have found remains from the
Parthian and Elamite ages.
The city remained important until the Arabs
invasion and the rise of Islam in the second quarter of
the
7th century AD. There were still people living there in
the
10th century.
