Karkheh River: Difference between revisions

{{redirect|Karkheh|the administrative subdivision of Iran|Karkheh Rural District}}

The '''Karkheh''' or '''Karkhen''' (known as the [[Gihon]]{{Citation needed|reason=Which source identifies the modern river, Karkheh, as the biblical river, Gihon?|date=March 2011}}—one of the four rivers of [[Garden of Eden|Eden]]/[[Paradise]] to the [[Bible]] and as the '''Choaspes'''<ref>{{cite book |last=Bosworth |first=A. B. |title=Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great |year=1993 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-40679-X |page=88}}</ref> in ancient times; also called '''Eulæus'''; [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: אולי '''Ulai'''<ref>{{cite book |last=Potts |first=Daniel T. |title=The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State |year=1999 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-56496-4 |quote=One refers to his camp while on campaign and to action near the Ulai, the modern Karkheh river, in Khuzistan |page=236}}</ref>) is a river in [[Khūzestān Province]] Andimeshk city, [[Iran]] (ancient [[Susa|Susiana]]) that rises in the [[Zagros Mountains]], and passes west of [[Shush, Iran|Shush]] (ancient [[Susa]]), eventually falling in ancient times into the [[Tigris]] just below its confluence with the [[Euphrates]] very near to the Iran-[[Iraq]] border. In modern times, after approaching within {{convert|10|mi|km|0|disp=flip}} of the [[Dez River]], it turns to the southwest and then, northwest of [[Ahvaz]], turns northwest and is absorbed by the [[Hawizeh Marshes]] that straddle the Iran–Iraq border. Its peculiarly sweet water was sacred to the use of the [[Persian Empire|Persian]] kings.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ancientlibrary.com/gazetteer/0110.html |title=page 108 |last=Hazlitt |first=William |year=1851 |work=The Classical Gazetteer |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070303022749/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/gazetteer/0110.html |archivedate=2007-03-03}}</ref> Ancient names for the Karkheh should be treated as conjectural because the bed of the river has changed in historic times, and because a nearby watercourse between the Karkheh and the Dez River, the Shaur, confuses the identification. <ref> John Hansman, "Charax and the Karkheh," ''Iranica Antiqua'' VII(1967), pp.21-58, and Michael J. Kirkby, "Land and Water Resources of the Deh Luran and Khuzistan Plains," Appendix I, in ''Studies in the Archaeological History of the Deh Luran Plain. The Excavation of Chagha Sefid,'' edited by Frank Hole, pp. 251-288. Memoirs, no. 9, Ann Arbor, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan </ref>

The river is mentioned in the Bible, [[Book of Daniel]] '''8''':2,16,<ref>"In the third year of the reign of king [[Belshazzar]] a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. And I saw in the vision; now it was so, that when I saw, I was in [[Shushan]] the palace, which is in the province of [[Elam]]; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai." (Daniel, '''8''':2)</ref><ref>"And I heard a man's voice between ''the banks of'' Ulai, which called, and said, [[Gabriel]], make this man to understand the vision." (Daniel, '''8''':16)</ref> and should not be confused with the [[Choaspes River (Afghanistan)|Choaspes River]] in modern-day [[Afghanistan]], which flows into the [[Indus River|Indus]].

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