The Band-e Kaisar , Pol-e Kaisar ("Caesar's bridge"), Bridge of Valerian or Shadirwan was an

ancient arch bridge in Shushtar, Iran, and the first in the country to combine it with a dam. Built
by the Sassanids, using Roman prisoners of war as workforce, in the 3rd century AD on Sassanid
order, it was also the most eastern example of Roman bridge design and Roman dam, lying deep
in Persian territory. Its dual-purpose design exerted a profound influence on Iranian civil
engineering and was instrumental in developing Sassanid water management techniques. The
approximately 500 m long overflow dam over the Karun, Iran's most effluent river, was the core
structure of the Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System from which the city derived its agricultural
productivity, and which has been designated by the UNESCO as Iran's 10th World Heritage Site
in 2009. The arched superstructure carried across the important road between Pasargadae and the
Sassanid capital Ctesiphon. Many times repaired in the Islamic period, the dam bridge remained
in use until the late 19th century.

History

According to Persian tradition, the Band-e Kaisar is named after the Roman emperor Valerian
(253–260 AD) who was captured with his entire army by the Sassanid ruler Shapur I after having
been defeated in the Battle of Edessa (260). This vast labour force, which may have numbered
up to 70,000 men and included the Roman engineering corps, was employed by the victors for
construction work in Shushtar, an important agricultural center in south-western Iran. To service
its large stretches of arable land, altogether some 150,000 hectares, the Romans set out to
construct three structures: a canal called Ab-i Gargar, and the two dams of Band-e Kaisar and
Band-e Mizan which directed the water flow of the Karun river into the artificial watercourse.
The story is related by the Muslim historians Tabari and Masudi in the 9th and 10th centuries.
Although their novelistic narrative cannot be blindly trusted, the historical presence of the
Romans is corroborated by modern local names, such as "Roumischgan" for a nearby village,
and a Lurs tribe by the name of "Rumian". Moreover, local tradition ascribes to Roman settlers
the origin of a number of trades, like the production of brocade, and several popular customs.
The dam bridge at Shushtar belonged to the important road connection between the Sassanid
centres of Pasargadae and Ctesiphon. Two further Sassanid dam bridges on this road, the Pa-i-
Pol across the Karkheh and the one at Dezful over the Ab-i Diz, are also assumed to be the
contemporary work of Roman prisoners of war. Both exhibit typically Roman masonry bound
with mortar, a technique completely foreign to indigenous architecture. Modelled on the Roman
example, the integration of a bridge superstructure into dam design became a standard practice of
Iranian hydraulic engineering which lasted until about 1000 AD, when it culminated in the still
existing Band-e Amir at Shiraz.

Construction

Shushtar lies on a rocky plateau above the Karun, Iran's most effluent river. An early dam, built
by the Sassanids to divert water for the town and its extensive irrigable hinterland, did not work
properly. The irrigation scheme put into effect after the arrival of the Roman labor force
included three steps: First, the river was redirected to the Ab-i Gargar, a channel which branches
off the Karun at a point upstream of the dam construction site, rejoining the main river some 50
km south; the island it forms, called Mianâb ("Paradise"), is known for its orchard plantations.
Then, the Kaisar Band-e was built across the dried-up riverbed, with its findings following a
winding course in search of solid sandstone strata. As the water flowed permanently over the
top, the hydraulic structure conforms to the definition of a weir rather than a dam. Estimates of
the raised water level range from a few feet to 7–10 m, but was most likely in the order of 3–4
m, which was enough to supply water for the irrigation conduits on both banks during the dry
season. Despite its modest height, the weir wall was quite thick (9–10 m) in order to
accommodate the arcaded superstructure. On top of the weir, a roadway originally supported by
at least forty arches ran along its entire length of around 500 m. The pointed arches which
visually dominate the present-day structure, or rather its remains, are testimony to numerous
reconstruction and maintenance works executed in Islamic times. The typical clear span of the
Pol-e Kaisar was between 6.6 and 9 m. The piers, protected on their upstream side by pointed
cutwaters, were of rectangular shape and pierced by high-set floodways; their considerable
thickness of 5 to 6.4 m restricted the waterway by nearly one-half. By comparison, pier
thicknesses of Roman bridges located within the empire’s frontiers commonly made up one-
fourth of the length of the bridge and did not exceed a maximum of one-third. The facing of the
piers and the foundation consists of cut sandstone blocks bonded by mortar and joined by iron
clamps; the interior was filled with Roman concrete, a building technique also observed in the
Pa-i-pol bridge. On the upstream face, the river-bed was paved with large stone slabs, probably
to prevent the current from undermining the dam base. One former Persian name of the dam,
"Shadirwan", derives from this paving. Finally, another smaller barrage, the Band-e Mizan,
whose construction may postdate the Roman works, was erected upstream to control the flow of
water into the Ab-i Gargar canal. The time it took the Roman labour force to complete the
ancient Shushtar hydraulic complex is variously reported as spanning three to seven years.