216 
MARANDE. 
the width of its bed at that part allowing the waters to become 
shallow by expansion. In the winter, it is sometimes frozen so 
hard, as to admit whole caravans to travel over its surface. 
Having crossed the river, and a plain on its border, of about 
three miles in extent, we arrived at the foot of a steep bank, 
which we ascended ; and passing through the ruins of a place 
called Sooja, travelled on four miles further, where we began ' 
another ascent, which we surmounted speedily, being spurred 
forward by the increasing cold of the evening; and gladly saw 
several large villages scattered over its summit. We halted at 
Gurgur, one of the nearest to us ; and the night being so 
severe, were happy to find any shelter, though in a poor little 
hut. 
Next day, our road lay due west, for nearly three miles ; 
after which, it wound about, to our old direction of south-east. 
In this course, we passed through a narrow ravine, or rather bed 
of a spring-torrent; which carried us, after an hour’s contention 
with the large and loose stones in our path, out upon an 
extensive plain, barren, and dreary, and bounded by a vast 
succession of hills, over whose dark heads towered the more 
distant mountains, covered with snow. Our halting-place was 
to be the town of Marande; and about eight miles before we 
reached it, I observed a splendid caravansary at some distance, 
on the road. My conductor told me, it was one of the many 
fine erections of the kind, which had been the work of that 
great Shah, Abbas. But, on my drawing near, I found it as 
completely abandoned to decay, as any of the superb cities his 
sword had wasted. The whole structure was of the best ma¬ 
sonry ; and fragments of the various-coloured tiles, which had 
been its ornament, were still visible over the grand gateway. 
