The Halil rises at 4,400 metres (14,400 ft) above sea level in the Kuh-e shah mountain about 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the north-east of Baft, flowing to the south-west until it is joined by the Zardasht and Rabor rivers.

It passes some 15 kilometres (9 mi) east of Kahnuj and terminates in the Hamun-e Jaz Murian of Baluchistan.

A 2013 research paper about the South mound states that work during 2006 to 2009 "revealed the remains of three successive settlements dating to the fourth millennium BC".

Excavation re-commenced in 2014 and revealed art works of "complexity and beauty" and artifacts that proved that the society had several writing systems.

It's believed that the two mounds had once formed part of a unified urban settlement that stretched many miles across the plateau ... [artifacts] "have been dated to between 2500 and 2200 B.C.