FIRUZABAD, a town of Persia, in the province of Fars, 7 2 M. S. of Shiraz, in 28° 51', at an altitude of 4,18o f t., in a fertile plain, 15 m. long by seven, well watered by a river which flows through it from north to south. Pop. about 4,000, accord ing to Lorini (1900) . The town is surrounded by a mud wall and ditch. The district has 20 villages and produces much wheat, and the rice of Firuzabad is famous. Three or four miles north-west of the town are the ruins of the ancient city and of a large build ing popularly known as the fire-temple of Ardashir; beyond them on the face of the rock in the gorge through which the stream enters the plain are two Sassanian bas-reliefs. The river leaves the plain at its southern end, and according to Persian history it was there that Alexander the Great, when unable to capture the ancient city, built a dyke across the gorge, thus damming up the water of the river, turning the plain into a lake, and submerging the city and villages. The lake remained until the beginning of the third century, when Ardashir, the first Sassanian monarch, drained it by destroying the dyke. He built a new city, calling it Jur or Gur, and made it the capital of one of the five great divisions of Fars. Firuz (or Piruz), one of Ardashir's suc cessors, called the district after himself—Firuzabad—("the abode of Firuz"), but the name of the city remained Gur until Azud-ud Dowleh (949-982) changed it to its present name. (P. Z. C.)