SAADPS HILL. 
()8 
with the people who have suffered it. It stands in the corner of a 
quadrangular building, that is attributed to Kerim Khan ; but whatever 
might have been its original endowment, it is at present the abode of 
misery, for a poor and solitary Dervish now occupies the building, who, 
besides the tomb, exhibits a copy of the poet’s works, for which exhi¬ 
bition he gets whatever his visitors may choose to give him. The taste 
for poetry, so common to the Persians, may be remarked in the many 
lines scribbled on the white washed walls of the room that encloses the 
tomb; a propensity which they exhibit on all places which are the 
resort of the idle and the curious. Saadi’s well is still to be seen, but 
we saw none of the sacred fish. From the tomb we ascended the Koli 
Saadi, or Saadi’s Hill, which is to be recognised by its triangular shape, 
and which towards the plain presents an uniform surface of white rock. 
On its summit are the remains of a fortification, consisting of a tower 
and part of a wall, called the Kaleh Bender. Some hundred steps far¬ 
ther on, on the declivity towards Shiraz, is to be seen the famous well 
of miraculous depth, mentioned by most travellers who have visited 
Shiraz. We at first imagined it was a natural cavity, but the regularity 
of its orifice, which is a parallelogram, induced us to conclude that it 
was a work of art, and to suppose that it might have been the Auh 
Ambar, or reservoir of water, belonging to the castle whose ruined walls 
surround it. Its depth is considerable ; but we omitted to try the 
experiment which Chardin made, who says he rehearsed a Pater-noster, 
before a stone, which he threw, had reached the bottom. It is cut into 
the solid rock, the layer of which descends to a great depth ; and as its 
grain is hard, tlie labour of cutting through it must have been great. 
The whole work, which creates surprise and admiration, gives an high 
idea of the perseverance of the people who performed it. The author 
of “ Les Beautes de la Perse” says, that formerly women convicted of 
adultery were thrown into it, but that circumstance we did not hear. * 
Quantities of pigeons flew out of it, which, he says, make their nest 
in it. 
At the foot of the hill is a garden called the Bagh dil Gosha, “ the 
garden exhilarating the heart,” with a pleasure-house, basins, and canals 
* P. 71. 
