THE HIGHLANDS OF KURDISTAN. 115 



walls of rock which constitute the historic Zagros 

 Gates. The ascent is made by a road which zigzags 

 backwards and forwards up the steep mountain-side, 

 and before reaching the summit a marble arch is passed 

 on the left-hand side, connected in the popular mind 

 with the story of Ferhad and Shirin, but said by 

 Layard to be Greek or Roman. ^ 



Having reached the summit you find that you have 

 risen by one gigantic step, as it were, from the lowlands 

 of Chaldsea to the highlands of Kurdistan, and I also 

 found that I had been incontinently hurried from the 

 delightful warmth and sunshine of early spring into 

 the gloomy depths of an abnormally late winter. For 

 the next four days we ploughed laboriously through a 

 sea of mud and slush underfoot, while rain, wind, hail, 

 and snow raged without ceasing overhead. It was 

 consequently with feelings of intense satisfaction that 

 I marched into Kermanshah on the 11th March, to be 

 welcomed and hospitably entertained by Mr H. E,abino, 

 whom I found in charge of the Kermanshah branch of 

 the Imperial Bank of Persia, opened here just a year 

 before. 



Varahan lY., at one time Governor of Kerman, and 

 hence styled Kerman Shah, had an eye to the strategic 

 advantages of the site when he chose the position now 

 occupied by the town which bears his name. Situated 

 midway between Teheran, Tabriz, Ispahan, and Baghdad, 

 with highways from all of these places meeting at a 

 common centre, its importance as a strategic position 

 is assured. Being the first town encountered on the 

 Baghdad-Teheran trade route, all goods must necessarily 

 enter it before they are distributed to the various towns 



^ " At about two-thirds of the ascent there is a small square building of 

 large dressed blocks of white marble, consisting of a deep-vaulted recess, 

 which is Greek or Roman." — Early Adventures, vol. i. p. 220. 



