View of the plain and cemetery from the Shah Savar relief

The relief faces a majestic view of the open valley and today looks down onto an old cemetery dotted with distinctive Bakhtiyari tombstones in the form of guardian lions and a ruined funerary chapel (Imanzadeh). In 1846, Austen Henry Layard relayed a local legend about this chapel: “An Imam on a black horse once visited this part of the plain, from which circumstance the Imam-Zadeh has received its name. They yearly sacrifice sheep here; and I suspect that the tradition is of a much remoter period than the time of the Imams.” (A. H. Layard, 1846, “A Description of the Province of Khuzistan.” Journal of the Royal Geographic Society 16, p. 78).