290 RAWLINSON ON SOUTHERN PERSIA. [Feb. 9, 1857. 



for an army to advance with all its supplies and materials of 

 war. I have on different occasions traversed most of the passes 

 w^hich lead from the low country to the interior of Persia, and the 

 only road which is practicable for guns, without extreme difficulty, 

 is the pass on the high road from Bagdad to Kermanshah, and even 

 that pass is far from easy. It was anciently named " The gates of 

 Zagros," and is now called the pass of Tak-i-Gerrah, from an old 

 Roman arched toll-house on the ascent of the mountain.* In the 

 south there is a pass leading from Siraf to Shiraz, but Caplain 

 Lynch is I think the only English gentleman who has ascended 

 it, and I am not aware that any account of it has been published. 

 The two passes described in General Monteith's paper are both 

 execrable, and the southern pass by Firozabad also suffers from 

 want of water. Then, again, in the country of Susiana there 

 are footpaths leading up the mountains in many directions along 

 which several English travellers have passed, such as Mr. Layard, 

 Mr. Loftus, and myself, but these are mere paths; they are not 

 roads practicable to artillery ; the only military route by which the 

 mountains can be ascended from Susiana is along the valley of the 

 Kerkha, but in that case the circuit is enormous. You have to 

 follow the river almost as high up as Kermanshah, in order to 

 get through the mountains and come out upon the plateau of Iran. 

 I have myself taken guns by this route from Shuster on to the 

 plateau at Kermanshah, but of course unopposed ; and I do not 

 think I could have ascended the passes in the face of an enemy. 

 Having thus given a general description of the passes, of the rivers, 

 and of the sea- coast, the only subject which remains to be noticed 

 by me, in reference to this part of Asia, would seem to be the inha- 

 bitants. I mentioned before that the coast-line — the belt of low 

 land that is along the coast — is exclusively inhabited by Arabs. 

 Beyond them, towards the interior, you have warlike Persian tribes 

 inhabiting the mountains. Immediately above Bushir, the Mame- 



* Tak-i-Gerrah means " the arch holding the road." The present building pro- 

 bably dates from the time of Gotarzes or Vologeses, when the Parthian kings were 

 supported, and even nominated from Kome, and is certainly of Western architec- 

 ture. In earlier times the body of Molon, the rebel satrap of Media, was here 

 erected on a cross by Antiochus. 



The name of Zagros has long been a puzzle in geographical etymology. Ee- 

 membering, however, that the inner face of the mountains is throughout the range 

 named Pasht-i-koh, or " back of the hill," and that Za-giri has this exact significa- 

 tion in Skipetari, I cannot help suggesting such an explanation ; and if it is asked 

 what the Skipetari could have been doing in the Median mountains, I would point 

 to the neighbouring city of Holwan, which is actually called Albania in the Peu- 

 tingerian map, and has a nearly similar name in the Cuneiform Inscriptions ; and 

 I would further note the general use of the Arian term Giri for " mountain," 

 throughout this part of Asia. 



