The
Karkheh or
Karkhen (perhaps the river known as the
Gihon—one of the four rivers of
Eden/
Paradise to the
Bible and as the
Choaspes in ancient times; also called
Eulæus;
Hebrew: אולי
Ulai) is a river in
Khūzestān Province Andimeshk city,
Iran (ancient
Susiana) that rises in the
Zagros Mountains, and passes west of
Shush (ancient
Susa), eventually falling in ancient times into the
Tigris just below its confluence with the
Euphrates very near to the Iran-
Iraq border. In modern times, after approaching within of the
Dez River, it turns to the southwest and then, northwest of
Ahvaz, turns northwest and is absorbed by the
Hawizeh Marshes that straddle the Iran–Iraq border. Its peculiarly sweet water was sacred to the use of the
Persian kings. Ancient names for the Karkheh should be treated as conjectural because the bed of the river has changed in historic times, and because a nearby watercourse between the Karkheh and the Dez River, the Shaur, confuses the identification.