Fourteen km south-east of Zabol, the capital city of the eastern province of Iran, and deep inside the agricultural lands of the Gowri village, there stands a small mound with a longitude of 61°, 36’, 7,8” and a latitude of 30°, 57’, 41.4”. (Map 1). Even though Tapa Gowri stands at a height of 491 m above the sea level it is only 8 meter higher than its surrounding lands. The dimensions of this mound are 80x70 m covering an approximate area of 5600 sq m. The mound is not of any particular geometrical shape but it could be analogized to an irregular circle or a horse shoe, the southern part of which has been removed (Map 2). It is said that the villagers of this region have removed the soil from this particular part of the mound in order to use it for enriching their agricultural lands. From the geological point of view the surrounding agricultural lands of Tapa Gowri have been formed by sediments and alluvial deposits from the rivers of the Sistan regions. However, owing to the ongoing drought in this region in the past few decades these lands are not being cultivated anymore and, as a result, a layer of saline has come to cover them.
