...^s 



Photo froip George Ivennan 



the: VII.I,AGe: of KAZBEK 



This is one of the villages which are found from time to time by the traveler in the wider 



parts of the pass of Dariel ^ 



the northern side of the mountains in 

 the east Caucasian province of Daghes- 

 tan. 



THK GATK OF THE CAUCASUS 



The roads leading back into the in- 

 terior from this point were only two in 

 number. One ran westward up the val- 

 ley of the Terek to the town of Vladi- 

 kavkaz, and then crossed the great range, 

 by the Dariel pass (see pp. 1091, 1096), 

 to Tiflis, while the other took a more 

 southerly course through the foothills to 

 Timour Khan Shoura (the village of 

 Tamerlane), where it ended in a great 

 maze of treeless peaks, ravines, and 

 precipices, traversed only by narrow and 

 perilous bridle paths. 



The first of these roads was the safer 

 and easier one to follow, but the second 

 offered greater inducements in the shape 

 of novel and adventurous experience, 



and after a few hours' deliberation I 

 ordered post horses and a taranfas (a 

 Russian traveling carriage) and pro- 

 ceeded to Timour Khan Shoura. 



As the distance from Petrovsk to the 

 provincial capital was. not great, I cov- 

 ered it in a single day, and put up that 

 night in a small and extremely primitive 

 hotel on the threshold of the wild region 

 known to the Daghestan highlanders as 

 *'the land of mountains." 



Early on the following morning I be- 

 gan to make inquiries with regard to the 

 possibility of riding through Daghestan 

 on horseback and crossing the great range 

 into the valley of Kakhetia (see map, 

 page 1086). Exploring the Caucasus had 

 seemed to me easy enough while I sat 

 in my library at home and traced out 

 possible routes on the map with my pen- 

 cil, but when I arrived on the ground the 

 undertaking assumed a very different 

 aspect. 



1099 



