KIZZILOUZAN RIVER. 
267 
erection of the earliest times, by some of the great captains ot 
old, who so well understood how to “ keep the gate” of their con¬ 
quests. The principal road of communication between Media 
and Armenia, has always lain over this tremendous mountain; 
and parts of a wide stone causeway, said to have been built by 
Shah Abbas, are yet very traceable. The present Prince-royal 
has been at great labour to restore this pass to all its ancient 
practicability; and even to go beyond his predecessors, by making 
it capable for the conveyance of artillery. Impossible as that 
might seem, to an eye fixed on the daily accumulating impedi¬ 
ments with which winter encumbers so alpine a road, I am 
assured, that in summer, cannon pass over its heights with very 
little difficulty. 
On descending the south-eastern face of the mountains, we 
had an extensive view of the valley below; whose romantic low¬ 
land scenery, and the sublime immensity of its boundaries, I had 
not seen excelled in the most stupendous regions of the Cau¬ 
casus. A fine river flowed through the beautifully undulating 
land, and a noble bridge, of three pointed arches, crossed it. 
This river, which was the Amardus of Ptolemy, and said to have 
been the Gozen of Scripture, owes its present appellation, the 
Kizzilouzan, to its yellow hue, the name being descriptive of 
such a peculiarity. Its course is very rapid, though in a serpen¬ 
tine direction ; and being augmented by several streams which 
rise near the town of Banna, amongst the north-eastern branch 
of the Kurdistan mountains, it pours majestically along, through 
a vast stretch of hilly country northward, till it enters Ghilan ; 
where, thundering forward amidst the most terrific scenery, it 
discharges itself at last, into the Caspian, to the east of Resht. 
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