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Passing Through the Valley of Poshtpar
By Khodarahim Baqerpour for Kouh Quarterly
outdoors@tehranavenue.com
July 2007
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Outdoors articles of TehranAvenue are furnished by the mountaineering quarterly Kouh.

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The lush and beautiful valley of POSHTPAR is located near the city of Borazjan (aka Dashtestan), in the BUSHEHR Province, southwest of Iran. The heights of SARMASHAD, from northwest to northeast and the heights of Poshtpar to the north, surround and irrigate the valley. There are many remains dating back to the Sassanid Era (226 - 651 AD) in this region, some of which I shall name and explain in this article. The village of Poshtpar is between the two cities of Sarmashad and Tang-e Eram. The fertility of the land and the availability of water have turned this mountainous village into an idyllic place to visit. QASHQAI Nomads have also moves into this region over the past 20 years and built settlements. It seems that this forgotten land is seeing human life again after more than 1400 years since the demise of the Sassanid.

The Poshtpar region is in fact a narrow valley surrounded by majestic mountains. It is cold in the winter and mild in the summer. In winter and spring the valley is covered in flowers and herbs, ideal for pastoral nomads. In the middle of the valley the stone monument of Gur-Dokhtar makes a show. It is a monument much like the tomb of {Cyrus} (d. 530 BC) in Pasargadae and belongs to the same historical period. According to the book Eqlim-e Pars ("The Region of Pars"), the monument was discovered in 1960 by a Belgian archeologist called {Louis Vanderberg}.

Much like Cyrus' resting place, the monument is made of large slabs of stone and bears etchings of the Achaemenid period. The details of these etchings differ from the Tomb and so do its dimension. Its height is 4-5 m and the chamber inside is 1.5 x 2.20 x 2 meters. The Tomb of Cyrus was built on a six-stair pedestal whereas Gur-Dokhtar has only three. Vanderberg believes that Gur-Dokhtar is in fact the tomb of {Chish-Pesh}. It's not clear whether Chish-Pesh was an ancestor of Cyrus, his daughter or his sister. Should Vanderberg's hypothesis be correct, we could assume that the Tomb of Cyrus was modeled after Gur-Dokhtar. The walls of the rectangular chamber are also made of large slabs connected with metal pins. This chamber finds itself on the third pedestal and it opens northward. To enter the chamber one has to go through an opening 76 m wide by 90 m tall. There is an elliptic recess on the ground opposite the entrance, for which no one has been able to offer an explanation. The ceiling of the chamber is made of two stone slabs, above which is another, this time hallow and conical, slab. Two triangular slabs covered each side of the roof, one of which has fallen to the ground. The northern side of the tomb is made of three slabs of varying dimensions. The bottom slab bears etchings and on top of the middle slab a hole had been cut.

To the east of Gur-Dokhtar, the remains of a palace of Ardashir, the Sassanid king, can be traced. Here, one can also detect the remains of a fire temple. Both of these monuments are in the plain of Boz-par, at the foot of the mountain to the west of an area called Takht-e Ab-e Shirin, and not far from Gur-Dokhtar and the hills of Shoghali and Khandaqi. The natives call the fire temple "Kushk" (or palace). It is a monument made of stones and lime and in the shape of Sassanid temples. The Kushk is in a state of attrition. Some parts have already been destroyed. Despite the pitiable condition that the Kushk finds itself in, one can see the glory of the past in this monument, especially when standing on its eastern veranda. The apex of the ceiling has collapsed, but the height of the monument currently stands at 6 meters. A narrow passageway (2.20 x 12 m) on the second floor of this fire temple remains. For some reason, this north-south corridor has remained intact over the years. Apparently, a small chamber beneath this corridor connected the eastern part of the monument to the western. The length and width of this structure is 40 meters by 50. Also, in this area one can find the remains of many foundations, platforms, and barricades. Near the structure, there are two mounds by the names of Tol-Khandaqi and Tol-Shoghali. Excavation of these two mounds may reveal a great deal about the history of the fire temple. There is a circular water reservoir in front of this structure.

There is yet another fire temple at the foot of the western peak of the plain of Boz-par, 1500 meters east of Gur-Dokhtar. But little remains of this structures. It is known among the natives as "The Prison." Another archeological find in this region is called Tang-e Khazaneh. A grotto that people of the area believe housed the royal treasure. The opening of this grotto is 75 cm in radius and it was covered with molten lead. Today only the outlines of it remain. To the west of Gur-Dokhtar, we can find the remains of a building known as Takhtgah-e Zahhak ("Zahhak Dais").

There are two ways to reach this beautiful and historic valley. The first one starts from the city of Borazjan and travels 24 km to the city of Dalaki. From Dalaki, visitors must take the Tang-e Eram road, after which they must go towards Dehrud. From Dehrud a dirt road will take visitors east towards Boz-par. The villages of Aqa Mirahmad and Kaftar are along the way. A difficult pass (called "Takhteh") awaits the visitors once Kaftar is cleared. The entire trip is 115 km. The second route starts in Kazerun to Gordeh Jareh and from there to the village of Gareh, after which the dirt road is mountainous but not difficult.



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