PERSEPOLIS TO ISPAHAN. 
153 
We could perceive the town of Yezdikhanst a long time before we 
reached it, and supposed, therefore, that it was situated .at the foot of 
the eastern hills, on the same plain as that on which we were travelling. 
Our surprise then was, of course, excited to find ourselves on a sudden 
stopt by a precipice in our route. From its brow we overlooked a 
small plain beautifully watered by a variety of streams, and parcelled 
out in every direction into cultivated fields and gardens. The country 
which we had crossed was unbroken by the labour of the ploughman; 
here his industry was displayed and richly rewarded: we had seen 
scarcely one scanty rill; here water meandered in profusion; and 
though this little spot was now stripped of its verdure and chilled by 
the gloom of winter, the contrast between cultivation and a desert was 
still striking and cheering. This valley is like a large trench excavated 
in the plain. It is five miles long in an E. and W. direction, and about 
three hundred yards broad in the line where we crossed; but the 
breadth is unequal. At the eastern extremity on the brink of the pre¬ 
cipice, hangs the town of Yezdikhaust. Its situation is most fantasti¬ 
cal, and its mean and ill-defined houses appear at first sight to belong to 
the rocks on which they rise, and which, in varied and extravagant 
masses, surround the valley. The substance of the rock is soft. Be¬ 
neath it is a caravanserai , an elegant building erected near two hun¬ 
dred years ago by a pious Queen of the Seffi race. It is still in good 
repair, less by the care of the present generation than by the original 
solidity of its structure. ] On the verge of the precipice is a small 
mosque, built by the same Queen; and around it a burial place. 
Yezdikhaust is the frontier town of the provinces of Fars and Irak. 
Before the conquest of the Affghans it was a place of some conse~ 
quence, but since their devastations it has never resumed its prospe- 
rity. It was taken by assault, and the inhabitants put to the 
sword. To the East, over a rude drawbridge, is the entrance to the 
town, which, without the use of cannon, seems almost impregnable. 
It is there an isolated rock, connected with the others around only by 
this bridge. 
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