places the Garden of Eden at the northern tip of the Persian Gulf, fed by the four rivers Tigris, the Euphrates, Gihon (Karun) and Pishon (Wadi al-Batin). In 1888, during a period of increasing British influence in southern Iran, Lynch Brothers opened the first regular steamship service on the river linking Khorramshahr and Ahvaz. The name of the river is derived from the mountain peak, Kuhrang, which serves as its source. The famous silent film documentary, Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925), tells the story of the Bakhtiari tribe crossing this river with 50,000 people and 500,000 animals. It was here during the Iran–Iraq War that the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces stopped the early Iraqi Armed Forces advance. With its limited military stocks, Iran unveiled its "human wave" assaults which used thousands of Basij (Popular Mobilization Army or People's Army) volunteers. In September 2009, three districts of Basra province in southern Iraq were declared disaster areas as a result of Iran's construction of new dams on the Karun. The new dams resulted in high levels of salinity in the Arvand Roud, which destroyed farm areas and threatened livestock. Civilians in the area were forced to evacuate. Dams There are a number of dams on the Karun River, mainly built to generate hydroelectric power and provide flood control. Gotvand Dam, Masjed Soleyman Dam, Karun-1 (Shahid Abbaspour Dam), Karun-3, and Karun-4, most of them owned by the Iran Water and Power Resources Development Co., are all on the main stem. Karun-2 would potentially be located in the Sussan Plain between Shahid Abbaspour and Karun-3, but the project is still under consideration because of fear of submerging archaeological sites. A Karun-5 dam upstream of Karun-4 has also been proposed. The Masjed Soleyman, Shahid Abbaspour, and Karun-3 dams each generate 1,000–2,000 MW of power to service the peaking power sector of Iran's electricity grid, and when completed, Karun-4 will also generate 1,000 MW. There are also many dams on the river's tributaries. Dez Dam, Bakhtiari Dam (under construction) and Khersan-3 Dam (under construction) are among them. Khersan 1, Khersan 2, Zalaki, Liro, Roudbar Lorestan, Bazoft, and others are proposed. The dams on the Karun have had a significant effect on the sediment transport and the ecology of the river, and have required the relocation of thousands of residents. Notes References Karun-3, Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant, History. N. Jafarzadeh, S. Rostami,