This is a list of the rivers that flow wholly or partly in Iran, arranged geographically by river basin from west to east.
| Lake Urmia basin | |
|---|---|
| Persian Gulf basin | |
| Oman sea basin | |
| Caspian basin | |
| Gavkhouni basin | |
| Namak Lake basin | |
| Hamun-e Jaz Murian basin | |
| Other | |
Khuzestan province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers an area of 63,238 square kilometres (24,416 sq mi). Since 2014, it has been part of Iran's Region 4.
Khorramshahr is a city in the Central District of Khorramshahr County, Khuzestan province, Iran, and serves as capital of both the county and the district.
The Khuzestan Plain is the relatively flat region of Iran where the Khuzestan province and the cities of Ahvaz, Susa and Abadan are located. It is the largest plain in Iran and one of the richest agricultural areas in the world. It is irrigated by several big rivers such as Karun and Karkheh. Khuzestan Plain borders Mesopotamia and is separated from it by the Shatt al-Arab river.
The Karun is the Iranian river with the highest water flow, and its only navigable river. It is 950 km (590 mi) long. It rises in the Zard Kuh mountains of the Bakhtiari district in the Zagros Range, receiving many tributaries, such as the Dez and the Kuhrang, before passing through the capital of the Khuzestan Province of Iran, the city of Ahvaz, before emptying to its mouth into Arvand Rud.
The Sefid-Rud is a river approximately 670 kilometres (416 mi) long, rising in the Alborz mountain range of northwestern Iran and flowing generally northeast to enter the Caspian Sea at Rasht.
The Karun-4 Dam is an arch dam on the Karun River located at 180 km southwest of Shahr-e-Kord in the province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran. The Karun has the highest discharge of all the Iranian rivers. Its construction is aimed at electric power supply of 2107 million kWh annually and controlling floods in the upper Karun.
The Zarrineh Rud is a river in Kurdistan Province and West Azarbaijan Province, Iran.
Aji Chay or Talkheh Rud is a river in Azerbaijan region of Iran. Most of it is in the East Azerbaijan Province.
The Masjed Soleyman Dam is a dam in Iran on the Karun river. It is 177 metres (581 ft) high, has an installed capacity of 2,000 MW, and its reservoir holds 261,000,000 cubic metres (212,000 acre⋅ft) of water. The dam is a rock-fill structure with a vertical clay-core. The dam was built by Iran Water and Power Resources Development Co. and completed by 2002. The power station was built in two 1000 MW stages. The first stage was complete in 2003 and the second in September 2007. The dam was named after the town of Masjed-Soleyman, about 25 kilometres (16 mi) away. The spillway gates are believed to be the largest of their kind in the world.
Upper Gotvand Dam, or simply the Gotvand Dam, is an embankment dam on the Karun River about 12 km (7.5 mi) northeast of Gotvand in Khuzestan Province, Iran. It currently has an installed capacity of 1,000 MW with another 1,000 MW in the works for a second phase. Studies for the Karun River began in the 1960s and specific designs on the Upper Gotvand were presented in 1967, 1975 and 1982. After the design and location were chosen, a further study was carried out in 1997, the same year preliminary construction began. The river was diverted by April 2003 and excavation began soon thereafter. After completion of the dam, impounding of its reservoir began on 30 July 2011 during a ceremony attended by Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad. The first generator of phase one was commissioned on 5 May 2012, two more by 18 September 2012 and the final in November 2012. Ahmadinejad was again present for the dam's inauguration on 22 April 2013. Phase 2 is estimated to be complete in 2015 and the dam is going to become one of Iran's largest power stations and is already its tallest earth-fill dam.
Khersan-3 dam is an arch dam currently under construction on the Khersan River, a tributary of the Karun River, in Iran. When complete it will have an installed capacity of 400 MW. It is situated near Atashgah in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province and is a complementary dam to Khersan project along with the proposed Khersan-1 and Khersan-2 Dams. Construction began in 2007 and it is expected to become operational in 2015.
Tarik Dam is a dam on the Sefīd-Rūd river in the Alborz mountain range, about 32 km (20 mi) south of Rasht in Gilan Province, northern Iran.
During the early Islamic centuries, the Daylamite Buwayhid king, Panah Khusraw Adud ad-Dawlah, ordered the digging of a canal to join the Karun River, which at the time emptied independently into the Persian Gulf through the Bahmanshir channel, to the Shatt al-Arab waterway, the joint estuary of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The extra water from the Karun, which, at times during the spring melt, discharged over 27 times the volume of the Tigris-Euphrates water that reaches the Shatt al-Arab) makes the joint estuary more reliably navigable.
The Bahmanshir channel is a secondary estuary of the Karun River that parallels the Shatt al-Arab/Arvand Rud waterway on the far side of the Abadan Island, Iran, for 70 miles before emptying into the Persian Gulf.
Quruqchi Rud is a village in Ujan-e Gharbi Rural District, in the Central District of Bostanabad County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 376, in 82 families.
Iranrud which means Iran River in Persian, was a plan to build a canal from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Oman. The former Soviet Union was eager to realize this project because its only warm water ports led to the Strait of Istanbul and the Dardanelles, which were under the control of Turkey, a NATO country.
The Simineh River, also known as the Tatavi Chay, is a river in northern Iran, arising in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan Province north of Saqqez, that flows into the south end of Lake Urmia. It is just over 200 kilometres (124 mi) long and has a catchment basin (watershed) of 2,090 square kilometres (810 sq mi). Its waters are used primarily for agriculture and the return flow significantly degrades its water quality.
Ghezel Ozan is one of the longest rivers in Iran, originating from the Chehel Cheshmeh Mountains between Saqqez and Divandarreh in Kurdistan Province flowing in northern Iran.
The Khersan River is a 180km long tributary of the Karun River in Iran, flowing into an arm of the reservoir formed by the Karun-3 Dam. The Khersan-3 Dam is under construction, proposed to be the most upstream of a cascade of three dams.
