CAMP AT OJAN. 
277 
of the basis of the preliminaries, the Ambassador and the Russian 
Aide-du-camp proceeded, one after the other, to the King’s camp at 
^ Ojan. 
The distance from Tabriz to Ojan is about 30 miles; and under the pre¬ 
sent circumstances the road between the city and the camp was much 
frequented by people of all descriptions. We found the plain of Ojan en¬ 
tirely covered with tents, and long before we reached, or even saw the 
camp, its situation was pointed out by a dense vapour, which hung over 
it. All its avenues were covered with cattle, which are permitted to ex¬ 
tend themselves in quest of pastures to considerable distances, the lands 
in the more immediate neighbourhood, which on our first passage 
through them we had found over-abounding in grass, having now 
become a brown and dusty waste. The position and general appear¬ 
ance of the camp of Darius before the battle of Issus, as related in 
Quintus Curtius, is very characteristic of a modern Persian camp, and of 
what we saw at Ojan.^ “ By the time the reconnoitring party (which 
Alexander had dispatched) had returned, the extended multitude could 
be seen at a distance. Then the fires began to blaze throughout the Per¬ 
sian camp, which had the appearance of a general conflagration. The 
space over which the irregular mass spread, was more dilated on account 
of their cattle.” Whoever has seen at night, at a distance, a Persian camp, 
or indeed a camp of any Asiatics, whose immense fires are lighted in all 
parts of it, will be struck with the correctness of the similitude to a ge¬ 
neral conflagration. 
The palace of the King is situated in the eastern part of the plain, 
and occupies a hillock, which like that at Sultanieh is artificial. It con¬ 
sists of a hall of audience, which forms the principal front of the 
building, and of an anderoon, or private apartments, for the harem. 
The hall is supported by two wooden gilded pillars, and looks upon a 
garden laid out in walks, shaded by poplar and willow trees. The whole 
is surmounted by a hala kJwneh or upper room, screened by curtains, 
* Sed quum specidatores reverteruntur, promt ingens midtitudo conspecta est; ignes deinde totis 
campis coUiicere cceperunt, omniaque velut continenti incendio ardere visa ; qnum inconditn midti¬ 
tudo, maxime propter jumenta, laxius tenderet. Lib. iii. c. 8. 
