| Abstract:
Investigating the first signs of political, economic, and cultural exchanges in the world should be explained. Iranian people played major role in communication routes, especially in the Iranian Plateau during emerging prehistoric periods, as link of Orient and Occident. Excavated sites in Iranian Plateau, Afghanistan, and central Asia lying at the border of the main modern routes and tracks, show that the earliest residents of these sites lived exactly along the tracks replaced nowadays by modern routes and used them to link different places (Majidzadeh, 1982: 59). One of the most important historic main routes was the so-called “ Great Khorasan Road” which played a major role linking together different cultures and civilizations. Pataq Defile is one of the key parts of the Great Khorasan Road linking Khorasan and Mesopotamia. In this present paper, the authors develop archaeological and historical studies about one of the most important sections of Great Khorasan Road known as Pataq defile, Median Gate, or Zagros Gate. Indeed, mentions of the Pataq defile in historic sources indicate firm correspondences with “ Median Gate” or “ Zagros Gate” geographical term. Studying the historic and archaeological sources, the authors identified the real significance of the defile. By several surveys and through investigation in historical sources including the travel logs, we were able to give more details on the defile, leading to a better understanding of historical changes through aerial photographs and GIS analysis.
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| Keyword(s): Median Gate,Zagros Gate,Aqabeh,e,Holvan,Pataq Defile,Taq,i,Garra,Zeidj,e,Manizheh |