TEHRAN – Water leaks at Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System, a UNESCO-registered prehistorical ensemble in southwest Iran, which is known globally as a masterpiece of creative genius, are an immediate concern and need to be controlled, an official with the Provincial Government has announced. 

To prevent water leakage in the historical structure, which could result in its destruction, short-term measures are taken, Mehr quoted Fazel Abiat as saying on Wednesday.

Studies and research are being conducted and meetings with consulting engineers are underway to find a way to cause the least damage to this ensemble, the official added. 

He also noted that by the end of the current Iranian month of Mehr (October 22), all water networks in the area with an area of about 90 square kilometers should be leak-tested so that if there are leaks, they can be fixed.

Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System comprises bridges, weirs, tunnels, canals, and a series of ancient watermills powered by human-made waterfalls. It is named after an ancient city of the same name with its history dating back to the time of Darius the Great, the Achaemenid king.

Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2009, the Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System may testify to the heritage and the synthesis of earlier Elamite and Mesopotamian knowhow. According to UNESCO, the ensemble was probably influenced by the Petra dam and tunnel and by Roman civil engineering.

UNESCO says that the Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System demonstrates outstanding universal value as in its present form, it dates from the 3rd century CE, probably on older bases from the 5th century BC. It is complete, with numerous functions, and large-scale, making it exceptional.

The property is as rich in its diversity of civil engineering structures and its constructions as in the diversity of its uses (urban water supply, mills, irrigation, river transport, and defensive system). The Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System testifies to the heritage and the synthesis of earlier Elamite and Mesopotamian knowhow; it was probably influenced by the Petra dam and tunnel and by Roman civil engineering.

“The hydraulic system has been considered a Wonder of the World not only by the Persians but also by the Arab-Muslims at the peak of their civilization,” according to the UN cultural body.

Furthermore, one of its main canals is a veritable artificial watercourse that made possible the construction of a new town and the irrigation of a vast plain, at the time semi-desert.

The Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System sits in an urban and rural landscape specific to the expression of its value.

ABU/AFM