Qualla: Hamun-e Jaz Murian https://qualla.com/hamun-e-jaz-murian en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/k/c/u/hamun-e-jaz-murian-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Hamun-e Jaz Murian https://qualla.com/hamun-e-jaz-murian Hamun-e Jaz Murian: Introduction https://qualla.com/hamun-e-jaz-murian/ Photo credit Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. In Zoroastrian scripture, the basin is holy. The ancient texts call it by its Middle Persian name, Chitro Meyan, and grant it a sacred character equal to that of the Hamun-e Helmand on the Afghan border. Today, the Hamun-e Jaz Murian is dying. This 69,600-square-kilometer inland depression in southeastern Iran, straddling the provinces of Kerman and Sistan-Baluchestan, once held a seasonal lake fed by two rivers and surrounded by mountain peaks exceeding 6,500 feet. Now it lies mostly dry -- a casualty of dam construction, groundwater overexploitation, drought, and the accelerating consequences of climate change in one of the most water-stressed regions on Earth.

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Image: Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/k/c/u/hamun-e-jaz-murian-wp/tkcu-hamun-e-jaz-murian-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Hamun-e Jaz Murian: The Basin That Breathes https://qualla.com/hamun-e-jaz-murian/ Photo credit Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. At the center of the Jaz Murian depression sits what geographers call a hamun -- a seasonal lake that fills and empties with the rhythm of wet and dry years. In good years, water collects from the surrounding mountains and the basin holds a shallow lake. In dry years, the lakebed...

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Image: Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/k/c/u/hamun-e-jaz-murian-wp/tkcu-hamun-e-jaz-murian-the-basin-that-breathes.mp3 0:06 2 full Hamun-e Jaz Murian: Two Rivers, Neither Enough https://qualla.com/hamun-e-jaz-murian/ Photo credit Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two principal rivers feed the Jaz Murian basin. From the west comes the Halil Rud. From the east flows the Bampur River. In theory, these two watercourses should sustain the seasonal lake at the basin's center. In practice, neither delivers much water anymore. Agriculture along b...

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Image: Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/k/c/u/hamun-e-jaz-murian-wp/tkcu-hamun-e-jaz-murian-two-rivers-neither-enough.mp3 0:06 3 full Hamun-e Jaz Murian: Sacred and Contested Ground https://qualla.com/hamun-e-jaz-murian/ Photo credit Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Zoroastrian scriptures that name this basin as holy reflect a much older understanding of the landscape -- one in which water, even seasonal water, was sacred precisely because it was scarce. An Armenian Indologist named Seth once proposed that the Jaz Murian basin was repair...

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Image: Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/k/c/u/hamun-e-jaz-murian-wp/tkcu-hamun-e-jaz-murian-sacred-and-contested-ground.mp3 0:06 4 full Hamun-e Jaz Murian: A Landscape Running Dry https://qualla.com/hamun-e-jaz-murian/ Photo credit Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. The drying of Jaz Murian is part of a larger crisis unfolding across southeastern Iran. High evaporation rates, falling water tables from decades of pumping, dam-impounded rivers, and a changing climate have conspired to transform what was once a dynamic wetland into a dusty plai...

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Image: Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/k/c/u/hamun-e-jaz-murian-wp/tkcu-hamun-e-jaz-murian-a-landscape-running-dry.mp3 0:06 5 full