HS Scientific Reviews. 



ward from Germany, the object becomes gradually dimmer, till we 

 enter the wilderness of Turkish despotism, that region of darkness 

 visible, which serves only to discover signs of woe, successive and 

 doleful shades. It is plain, therefore, that as in going east our mo- 

 dern geographical knowledge proportionally decreases, so does our 

 knowledge of comparative geography. When we cross the Hellespont 

 the case is still worse, and not the twentieth part of Asia Minor is 

 geographically known to Europeans. Beyond the Euphrates, all 

 the region eastward to Aderbejan, south to Mesopotamia, and north 

 to the plain of the Araxes, is little better than a terra incognita, a 

 few routes excepted. East of the Tigris the case is much the 

 same. The whole of Assyria, a few points excepted, — the south of 

 Media, — and the whole tract south from the Duallah to the mouth 

 of the Shat-ul-Arab is xmknown, except the positions of Shush and 

 Shushter. Of late years, indeed, we have become better acquaint- 

 ed with Persia Proper ; but we are still unacquainted with the 

 southern and midland parts of that empire. Mr. Frazer's route, 

 as far as Mesched, has thrown great light on the northern parts ; 

 and with Aderbejan we are now tolerably well acquainted, by 

 means of Morier, Kinnier, Porter, Alexander, and others. 



Having thus premised the fact of our ignorance of modern Asia- 

 tic geography, the reader may easily see the difficulty of the sub- 

 ject, and what an arduous task Mr. Williams has imposed on him- 

 self, in endeavouring to dispel the mist which has so long envelop- 

 ed the geography of Western Asia. A remarkable proof of this is 

 the site of the famed Ecbatana itself, the capital of the ancient 

 Medes, and then of the Persian empire, concerning which all the 

 moderns without exception have been completely in the dark, some 

 placing it at the Terva and others at the Tigranoama of Ptolemy, 

 although that geographer has placed both these cities in Armenia. 

 Others have fixed it at Tauris, as Ortelius, Golnitzius, John Min- 

 adoi, Pietro Delia Valla, Chardin, and even that distinguished ori- 

 entalist Sir William Jones, and the celebrated Gibbon. D'Anville 

 and others have identified Ecbatana with the modern Hamadan, 

 and this seems at present to be the prevalent opinion. Mr. Wil- 

 liams, in opposition to both these theories, however, endeavours to 

 show that Ispahan stands on the site of the ancient Ecbatana, and 

 this he proves from the marches of Alexander, as preserved in Ar- 

 rian and Diodorus, namely the one from Persepolis to Ecbatana, 

 and the other from Susa to the same capital. The one was per- 

 formed in sixteen days, and the other in eighteen days, the respec- 

 tive distances being 192 and 220 miles each in British measure, 

 and in a rectilinear line. If Hamadan and not Ispahan were the 

 ancient Ecbatana, the intermediate distance to be marched would 

 have been 540 English miles, or nigh 34 miles a-day direct, a thing 

 quite impossible for any army ; and what demonstrates still more 

 the impossibility of such a march, was the nature of the space X<» 

 be traversed, and the season of the year. It was winter, and the 

 whole road mountainous, and the passes filled with snow. Now,: 



