Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari
چهارمحال و بختیاریThe high Zagros pastures of the Bakhtiari, where the Zayandeh and Karun rivers begin.
This is the roof of the Zagros. Its capital, Shahrekord, is one of the highest provincial capitals in Iran, and the Zayandeh River, which flows to Isfahan, and the Karun, which flows to Khuzestan, both rise in the Zard Kuh range.
It is the summer land of the Bakhtiari, a Lur people whose seasonal migration with their flocks across the mountains was filmed in the 1925 documentary Grass.
Cities and towns
Shahrekordشهرکرد
The provincial capital
Borujenبروجن
A town on the high plain
Farsanفارسان
A centre of Bakhtiari life
Landmarksبناها و نشانهها
Zard Kuh
زردکوهThe range where the Karun and the Zayandeh rise
Stories from hereداستانها
The garden carpet
Water channels, fish, cypresses and flowering trees: a garden carpet maps the Persian *chahar bagh* onto wool, seen from above and from the side at once.
Village and tribal weaving
Woven from memory rather than from paper, on looms that sometimes travel, village and tribal rugs make up much of Iran’s weaving.