Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

in GEOGRAPHY OF ELAM & BABYLONIA 49
able bas-reliefs. This district was apparently that of the
Hapardip, and the large mound on the eastern part of
the plain was probably the capital, Tarrisha. Most of the
figures in the rock sculptures have no inscriptions ; but
one of them forms a happy exception, and we learn that
it was chiselled in honour of a certain Prince Khanni, whose
effigy dominates the scene, the
figures of a priest, of the
attendants, and of the sacrificial rams being disproportionately
small. Above these tiny figures three musicians
march in
procession,^ Ruins of the Sasanian
period have
also been discovered ; and to the north-west are the
remains of the famous bridge Khurrah Zad,^ so named
after the mother of Ardeshir, the founder of the Sasanian
dynasty.
Ram Hormuz on the Ahwaz-Behbehan road was also
a site of its
antiquity, founder under its present name being
Hormuz, grandson of Ardeshir. It was also celebrated
as the site of the last and decisive battle which sealed the
fortunes of the house of Sasan and ended the Parthian
dynasty. It is probable that all these sites, and others like
Band-i-Kir are extremely ancient, and that the Sasanian
and medieval remains cover Elamite foundations.
The Natural Fertility of Elam,— In medieval times
Khuzistan, as it was then termed, was perhaps the most
fertile province of Persia, its sugar-cane being especially
celebrated. But an influx of nomads, following on ruthless
conquest, has destroyed a once teeming population, which
depended for its living on the splendid irrigation works.
This system of canals every government until comparatively
recent times kept in order, even if it did not
enlarge it ; but now ancient Elam, like Babylonia, awaits
the engineer who, given a free hand and a stable government,
could in a few years, as in Egypt or on a still
larger scale in the Panjab, settle millions of prosperous
peasantry on land which now supports only
a few thousand
nomads and their flocks.
The Boundaries of Babylonia.—
Having given some
account of the province of Elam both in ancient and
^
The Paising of the
Empires^ p. 2a8 also jt Etudes, etc^ p. 225, note 3,
2
The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, p. 245.
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