Dezful, city in southwestern Iran, located near the Iraqi border on the west bank of the Dez River, in Khuzestan province. Dezful is the primary commercial center for northern Khuzestan and a market for the agricultural products of Lorestan province. The city also contains a large cotton textile mill and many small- and medium-scale industries. The Dez Dam, 203 m (666 ft) high, completed in 1963, is 32 km (20 mi) upstream from Dezful; the dam provides water and electricity for the city, as well as irrigation for nearby sugarcane farms. Dezful sits on the main north-south highway from Tehran to Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan. The main rail line from Tehran to the Persian Gulf is 15 km (9 mi) from Dezful, on the opposite side of the Dez River.
The area around Dezful has been settled for more than 5000 years, though the origins of the city are unknown. Many historical monuments from the period 1250 BC to AD 600 are in the area. The city's most notable attraction is an arched, 410-m (1345-ft) bridge spanning the Dez River; historians believe the bridge dates to the 4th century AD, although most of it may have been rebuilt in the 15th and 16th centuries. The city also contains several mosques and tombs dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. Dezful has been a regional market center since the Sassanid dynasty (224-651), although its fortunes fluctuated with the level of security in Khuzestan. The period from the early 18th to the early 19th century was generally a period of economic decline, but the city began to prosper and develop after 1925. Dezful was bombed several times during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and suffered extensive damage, most of which had been repaired by the mid-1990s. Population (1994) 202,004.
