Loor Andimeshk Aquatic Structure: A Heritage from Ilkhani Period

Regarding the fact that this is the first report about the collection of bridges, we aim to determine the purpose why these structures had been made. Loor Site had been settled during the late Sassanid and the early Islamic Period. When had this bridge been made? How was it shaped? How had it been made? Had it just been made for the aim of trafficking or could it have been used for other purposes as well? What had been the cause of its collapsing? What is the bridge made of?
Looking briefly at the history of human life, we can conclude that they were always required to carry materials, to merchandise, and to perform military operations using these bridges. One of the most essential subjects with this regard had been about ways and transportation networks, on which human being’s development had been based. As a matter of fact, the process of extending roads in Iran has a very old and long history. Khorasan Road and trading lapis lazuli stones from east of Iran and soapstone from south-eastern Iran indicates this. Permanent and temporary rivers spanned from east to west of Iran and Mesopotamia had been an obstacle in building roads. Reliefs had been another obstacle to this process; however, bridges to some extent. Bridges had played an important role in bringing, keeping and extending human communication. Bridges in Iran had brought about a condition to communicate with adjacent nations. In some parts of Iran, bridges had not been a means to trafficking or connecting to points to each other, but they had been for other activities performed at banks of rivers, such as being used as promenade (Isfahan) or bazaar (Tabriz), Achaemened bridges, water mills in Khuzestan which were used as bridges. The bridge in this research had connected Khuzestan to Lorestan and is one of the bridges being built upon Loor River for the purpose of facilitating trafficking. The structure of the bridge is in a shape that had provided both drinking water and enough energy for milling. This is the way they had managed their structure as a multi-tasking construction. This set of constructions includes a bridge and some subsidiary constructions, situated within Lor Site. Loor Dam or Set is a smaller version of bridges used in Khuzestan, which is located in Loor Site, Andimeshk. This set includes bridges and canals for transferring water as well as unknown constructions at the bank of the river. These constructions are determined to belong to Ilkhani Period, because their architecture and location in Loor Site indicates that they had been built during Middle Islamic Period. These constructions are to some extent similar to water constructions in Shoushtar and Behbahan. Characteristics of the set of Lor constructions Loor Bridge-Dam is located 200 m northern Andimeshk Beltway, at 32o 28’ 31’’ northern latitude; 048o 21’ 28’’ eastern longitude; and 145 m above the sea level. Furthermore, this structure is located 350 m eastern Eritrin Town. This had been built upon Loor River, which had been one of the branches of Dez River (River had changed into a ravine). This bridge had vertically been built upon river at an east-western side. The base and walls of bridge-dam is built on the compact sand and stones at riverbed. What has remained are only a pillar, two broken piers and some bases of the bridge. Other parts of the bridge-dam and dependent constructions are scattered around because of floods, while some unshaped pieces are scattered around the banks of river. The breakwater on the pillar of the bridge is a pentagon or rhombus. To determine the exact location of the bridge, they started by choosing the narrowest waterway, which ran slower compared to other parts. They tried to locate the pillars of the bridge, so that they are constructed on stone just like lots of other historical bridges. They have determined the location of pillars correctly because bases are still on their place, with maybe very insignificant movements. It seems as if the architect had constructed pillars and bases on the stone riverbed first, then he had turned water to run under the bridge, or this turn had been a deflective canal to lead water under the bridge for the period when the bridge had been constructed. This bridge had been built in a Sassanid method just like Lorestan Bridges or the Islamic Bridge, Dokhtar. They were laid around pillars lots of grit bricks, filled with rubbles and limestone grout. Around these constructions, there were discovered some pieces of potteries which belonged to Middle and Early Islamic Periods. These potteries are all glazed green, while others are not glazed but include carved motifs.