2897.] 
R. Burn —The Bakhtiarl Hills. 
179 
deceptive, and we were in sight of the two large domes of Shushtar for 
three hours before we reached the town, and crossed the stone bridge 
over the Ab-i-Gerger, that wonderful irrigation channel cut through the 
rock. Shushtar and the Karun river from Shushtar to Muharrama 
have been fully described by Curzon. 1 
The importance of the route I have described, lies in the fact that 
by it Isfahan can be reached by a road journey of 250 miles instead of 
the long road of 470 miles from Bushir via Shiraz, for steamers run on 
the Karun from Basra to Ahwaz and from Ahwaz to Shushtar. Rough 
as is the way, but little is needed to make the worst parts as easy as the 
road from Shiraz to Bushir. Even without this improvement, if sarais 
were built at the halting places caravans would quickly use the road. 
As it is, the trade which Lynch Bros, are trying to develop, increases 
but slowly. 
TABLE OF DISTANCES. 
F rom to 
Miles. From to Miles. 
Julfa 
Bistajan 
29 
Bistajan 
Kava Rukh .,. 
21 
Kava Rukh Shalamzar 
20 
Shalamzar 
Naghun 
12 
Naghiin 
Dupulan 
10 
Dupulan 
Sarkhun 
18 
Sarkhun 
Pul-i-‘Imarat or 
Rudab 
12 
Pul-i-‘Imarat 
Dih-i-Diz ... 
12 
Dili-i-Diz 
Guda-i-Balutak 
11 
Giida-i-Balutak Mai Amir 
22 
Mai Amir 
Mai Saiyyidi 
10 
Mai Saiyyidi 
Gugird 
24 
Gugird 
Labari 
25 
Labari 
Shushtar 
22 
248 
These distances are if anything slightly under-estimated. Curzon 
gives the distance as 260 miles. I have omitted the detour we made 
from Kava Rukh to Dih-i-Khurd (7 miles), as it is out of the way. 
1 Persia II c. XXV. 
