THE PYL^ CASPI^. ' 
3G5 
we may fairly calculate the distance at abput forty miles. At about 
six miles from Firouz Koh, the Mazanderan road leads over the moun¬ 
tains, to the°left, and that of Khorassan, to the right. Nearly at their 
separation, is a stupendous pass, formed by two masses of rock, rising 
opposite to each other, about one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
feet in height, with a narrow channel at their bases about twenty or 
thirty paces in breadth, part of which is occupied by a stream and part 
by the road. The pass in its various turns may be about three hundred 
paces in length; but it is neither so narrow nor so remarkable, con¬ 
sidered as a natural curiosity, as those of Sawachi. On its eastermost 
gorge are the remains of a castle on a hill, consisting of one large 
round tower, but intitled to no greater antiquity than the age of Ti- 
mour, or Jenghiz Khan. It is called Caleb Surkh, or the Red Castle, 
from its being situated on a red hill. The pass is known to the people 
of the country by the name of Teng Ser enza, a Mazanderan appel¬ 
lation, of which we could not discover the meaning. Having passed 
it, a high road, which may be called the road into Parthia, strikes off 
on a direction almost due east to Semnan, whilst ours, which has only 
become a high road from the recent passage of the King and his army, 
took a N. E. direction. 
I was at first inclined to suppose that this pass and those of Sawachi 
might be the P^lce CaspicB^ but on referring to Pliny, and to the dis¬ 
tances given by Arrian of Alexander’s march in pursuit of Darius, I 
found that it could not be. The former writer says that they are eight 
miles in length, and that the tract which encompasses them is without 
fresh water for a space of thirty-eight miles.* The latter, that Alex¬ 
ander reached the Pylae in one day from Ragis. f- The passes which I 
have described are short, and the distance from Rey (supposing Rey to 
be the ancient Ragis) to Firouz Koh, at the nearest is twenty fur- 
sungs, which even with light troops, such as accompanied Alexander, 
would be almost impossible to travel in one day. Those which best 
agree with Alexander’s march, and with Pliny’s description, are, I should 
* Pliny, lib. vi. chap. 14. 
f Arrian, Expedition of Alexander, lib. iii. chap 7* 
