432 
KANGAVAR, POSSIBLY ELYMAIS. 
and these ruins doubtless form a part of some one of those 
cities. It is impossible to pass over such scenes without stop¬ 
ping to pause under the most awful impression ; here lay the 
remains of a great city; with memorials of her past existence 
standing in such stupendous heights and breadths, and yet all 
that had concerned it was now buried in such deep oblivion, 
that not even a conjecture could be formed of what had been its 
name. These reflections brought similar places to my mind ; 
and the present mounds being nearly in a line with those of 
Kangavar (or Concobar), lying between Hamadan and Kerman- 
shah, and which I had visited in my way thither, recalled those 
more perfect and beautiful remains to my memory; and, while 
meditating on them during my ride, a possibility occurred to 
me of their having been the ruins of Elymais. Though, per¬ 
haps, a little out of place here, so far from their site, I cannot 
refrain from proposing my reasons for the supposition. All the 
mountainous regions which lie south of the luxuriant vales of 
o 
Sahadabad, stretching thence to the northern boundary of Khu- 
zistan, were in ancient times inhabited by the Elymaitse, and 
other similar aborigines; hence it does not seem improbable 
that their capital might be found in this most luxuriant quarter 
of the country. The ruins of Kangavar certainly exhibit the 
remains of some eminently splendid structure, and to all ap¬ 
pearance, of a temple. We read, that Antiochus the Great, 
hearing that the Temple of Diana at Elymais was possessed of 
vast treasures, on his return to Persia attempted to make him¬ 
self master of the place, but was repulsed with shame by the 
brave inhabitants, and obliged to retire upon Ecbatana. (Poly¬ 
bius. Josephus.) But Antiochus Epiphanius (not quite two cen¬ 
turies before the Christian era,) succeeded better, and plundered 
