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Is it the largest ancient bridge?

Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: General History
Forum Name: Historical Arts and Architecture
Forum Discription: Discuss arts, literature, and architecture before the 19th century
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26227
Printed Date: 28-Mar-2024 at 11:55
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Topic: Is it the largest ancient bridge?
Posted By: Cyrus Shahmiri
Subject: Is it the largest ancient bridge?
Date Posted: 26-Dec-2008 at 08:26
http://www.livius.org/k/karkheh/pol-e_dokhtar.html -
More than 270 meters long and 30 meters high:
 
http://www.livius.org/k/karkheh/pol-e_dokhtar.html - http://www.livius.org/k/karkheh/pol-e_dokhtar.html
 
 

Pol-e Dokhtar


http://www.livius.org/a/iran/karkheh/bridge1.JPG">The bridge across the Kashkan at Pol-e Dokhtar. Photo Marco Prins.
Pol-e Dokhtar
Pol-e Dokhtar:  http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/sassanids/sassanids.htm - Sasanian bridge on the river Kashkan, near the place where it empties itself in the Karkheh (ancient http://www.livius.org/k/karkheh/choaspes.html - Choaspes ).

Pol-e Dokhtar means "bridge of the daughter", and is probably named after a daughter of the builder of this bridge, the http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/sassanids/sassanids.htm - Sasanian king Shapur I (241-272). However, the word dokhtar also expresses the wish that the construction remains pure and "intact" like a virgin, and is not an uncommon name in Iran (at Bishapur is a "castle of the daughter").


http://www.livius.org/a/iran/karkheh/bridge2.jpg">The bridge across the Kashkan at Pol-e Dokhtar. Photo Marco Prins.
The bridge's dimensions are truly enormous: it is about 270 meters long and rises about 30 meters above water level.  Eight arches were necessary to span the river Kashkan, the upper course of the http://www.livius.org/k/karkheh/choaspes.html - Choaspes (modern Karkheh). The Pol-e Dokhtar was part of the http://www.livius.org/ro-rz/royal_road/royal_road.htm - Royal road , which connected the Persian capitals http://www.livius.org/io-iz/istakhr/istakhr.html - Istakhr and http://www.livius.org/a/iran/bishapur/bishapur.html - Bishapur with towns in central and northern http://www.livius.org/men-mh/mesopotamia/mesopotamia.html - Mesopotamia , like http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/ctesiphon/ctesiphon.htm - Ctesiphon , http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/arbela/arbela.html - Arbela , Hatra, Nisibis, and http://www.livius.org/ea-eh/edessa/edessa.html - Edessa .
http://www.livius.org/a/iran/karkheh/bridge3.jpg">The bridge across the Kashkan at Pol-e Dokhtar. Photo Marco Prins.
Although the bridge was repaired on several occasions, today, only one arch survives. It is wide enough to offer room for a modern road
 
 
 
 


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Replies:
Posted By: Suren
Date Posted: 26-Dec-2008 at 08:35
Thank you Cyrus. Another monument which has been abandon by Islamic Republic instead of restoring.  

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Posted By: Knights
Date Posted: 26-Dec-2008 at 09:13
It's certainly monumental. There is another huge bridge in Iran built by Roman Emperor Valerian (whilst captive) in return for his freedom, called the Shadravan Bridge.


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Posted By: Suren
Date Posted: 26-Dec-2008 at 09:21
Shadorvan is correct. We use Shadravan for those who has passed away in Persian.

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Posted By: Knights
Date Posted: 26-Dec-2008 at 09:37
Thanks for the correction - I was unsure of the spelling.

A worthy competitor would surely be Trajan's Bridge over the Danube in Dacia. It is truly epic, and as far as I am aware, it is the largest Roman Bridge -

1150m long and up to 20m high (so not quite as high as the Pol-E Doktar), and 15m wide. It was only built in 2 years because the part of the river (which is 800m wide) was diverted.

My source on the measurements is Wikipedia, by the way.




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Posted By: Menumorut
Date Posted: 26-Dec-2008 at 12:02


Another Roman bridge over Danube was built in 328 (under Constantine the Great) between Sucidava (Romania) and Oescus (Bulgaria). It was 2400 m long and is considered the biggest bridge of Antiquity.







See the info on this link http://books.google.ro/books?id=Lwt5Li_q2asC&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=drobeta+sucidava+bridges&source=bl&ots=Q-4wd28Mgm&sig=6b8SjkuzLGTs31-bzhUSICbWNOs&hl=ro&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA165,M1 - this link and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine's_Bridge



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Posted By: Cyrus Shahmiri
Date Posted: 26-Dec-2008 at 17:34
Ancient bridges of Iran had mostly impressive heights, for example the ancient bridge of Tabas was originally more than 60 meters high!
 
 


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Posted By: Knights
Date Posted: 26-Dec-2008 at 22:33
That is epic, Cyrus.

The Alcantara Bridge over the Tagus River in Spain is another huge one built by the Romans under Trajan. It still stands at 71m high. Unfortunately there aren't many photos which give a true depiction of its proportional height.






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Posted By: Cyrus Shahmiri
Date Posted: 27-Dec-2008 at 07:37
I think this is the greatest bridge in Iran: http://www.allempires.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=22176 - http://www.allempires.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=22176
 
Anceint Bridge of Dezful
 
During the Iran-Iraq war several Iranian and Iraqi tanks and other very heavy vehicles crossed this ancient bridge.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dezful - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dezful  :

Dezful (Dezh-pol, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language - Persian : دزفول Fortress Bridge) is a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City - city in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khuzestan - Khuzestan province in southwestern http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran - Iran .

The most famous ancient structure of the city is a bridge that dates back to 300 BCE.

The name "Dezful" has been derived from the two words "Dezj" (fortress)+ "Pol" (bridge), that in combination can stand for 'the bridge to the fortress' or 'fortified bridge' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dezful#cite_note-autogenerated1-1 - [2] .


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Posted By: Truthisnotrelitive
Date Posted: 27-Dec-2008 at 09:46
you have to admire the mathematics involved in designing such structures
hi syris sharmiri
who built the iranian bridge depicted in your post?


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a man sees as he wishes


Posted By: Cyrus Shahmiri
Date Posted: 27-Dec-2008 at 11:53
Originally posted by Truthisnotrelitive

you have to admire the mathematics involved in designing such structures
hi syris sharmiri
who built the iranian bridge depicted in your post?
I don't think that we know it.


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Posted By: opuslola
Date Posted: 24-Mar-2010 at 09:05
Cyrus, regarding your original post;

http://www.livius.org/k/karkheh/pol-e_dokhtar.html

Thanks for the link! I have a question though. It seems from the photos that this bridge merely ends into facing cliffs! Was it approached by a descending roadway on both sides?

Is flooding on this river such a problem today that such a height was needed? If this was an important link in the past, where is the closest bridge located today?, and how high is it?

Regards,

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Posted By: Cyrus Shahmiri
Date Posted: 25-Mar-2010 at 14:56

opuslola, those are some difficult questions! Wink You are right about bridge ending into cliffs and I really don't know about it, but you can see in the pics that the Kashkan is already a small river, near another huge ancient Sassanid bridge on this river, there is a 26 meters high bridge from early Islamic period (10th century AD) which is still used and heavy vehicles cross it, in these pics you can see both bridges and compare the ancient and modern size of the river:

 
 
 


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Posted By: opuslola
Date Posted: 25-Mar-2010 at 15:06
Dear Cyrus,

Then it seems, the world sometime ago, entered a "dry" period, at least in that part of the world! Or, maybe Iran has built a large dam above this crossing, which controls the amount of water entering it?

Could it be that this was originally an aquaduct?

Maybe you can find out the answer?

Regards,

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http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/history/


Posted By: Cyrus Shahmiri
Date Posted: 25-Mar-2010 at 15:52
Dams have been built in Iran from very ancient times but I don't know about the reason for this large change in the size of the Kashkan river basin more than at least 1,000 years ago, it would be certainly easier to repair the old bridge, instead of building a new one, if the size of the river was not changed.

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Posted By: opuslola
Date Posted: 25-Mar-2010 at 18:48
A simple post whould then be;
WHY?

Highest regards,

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http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/history/


Posted By: unclebens
Date Posted: 02-Nov-2011 at 03:57
Shushtar is also known for a series of powerful mill-races, still in use in recent times, making it one of the economic centers of western Iran. The Sassanians also developed and exploited the system of underground canals known as qanaats, which brought water often over huge distances from the springs at the foot of the mountains ranges to the remoter desert areas. Persian gardens, a feature of Iranian civilization at all periods, are one feature of this sophisticated control of the water supply.


Posted By: opuslola
Date Posted: 12-Dec-2013 at 01:03
I am ashamed for the Iranian people that they have allowed most of the world to be banned from seeing this wonderful area of the world, that has been shown to us by Cyrus. At least the few vids of his finds that are still be able to be seen on this site!

Hey, Red Clay, could you restore some or all of those famous views of Iran that he has posted over the years? Possibly you have not even seen them?

Regards, Ron

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