Ruins of eight ancient dams unearthed near Pasargadae

A team of Iranian, French, and Belgian archaeologists discovered ruins of eight Achaemenid dams at Morghab Plain near Pasargadae, the ancient capital of Persia in Fars Province, southern Iran, a French member of the team announced here Tuesday.
"Due to the importance of the water supply system and waterworks in Morghab Plain over the ancient times, particularly during the Achaemenid era, our team in a special project began working on the site based on the studies, which had been previously carried out by other archaeologists," said Remy Boucharlat.
Morghab is one of the ancient plains of Iran, which contains ruins and dates back to several millenniums B.C. For several years, a huge number of people have been living in Morghab whose position was attached great importance due its adjacency to the Pasargadae.
"The dams were spotted by taking aerial photos and making studies during trips to the site. The findings show that the earth dams were built in and after Achaemenid era," he added.
With eight to 10 meters height, six of the dams have supplied potable and irrigation water and the other two are over 20 meters high, said Boucharlat, who is a University of Lyon archaeologist specializing in Iran.
Boucharlat is the writer of the article 'The Persepolis Area in the Achaemenid Period: Some Reconsiderations', which has been printed in Chapter 24 of the book 'Yeki Bud, Yeki Nabud: Essays on the Archaeology of Iran in Honor of William M. Sumner'. The book was published by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA in 2003.

Interesting, Cyrus the Great had an elaborate garden in Pasargard and it could have been irrigated from these dams, his garden is the oldest known in the world other than the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but whether that existed of has not been archaeologically proven.