380 
RUINS OF LANKER-ROOD. 
In our way to the city gate, we traversed long tracts of ruinous 
streets, and passed several mosques, on whose dilapidated 
domes the storks had built their nests. This bird is held in 
such veneration by the Persians, as to have obtained the epithet 
of Hadjee; an appellation of sanctity, usually appropriated to 
the pilgrims who had visited the shrine of Mecca. 
For about one farsang, our road lay a few degrees to the 
eastward of south; and for a considerable part of it, the cul¬ 
tivation was rich, the barley high, and of a vivid green, forming 
a striking contrast to the boundless sandy plain on our left. To 
our right, rose the chain of mountains continuing from the 
vicinity of Room, and taking the wildest, most shattered, and 
cliff forms, till they ended abruptly in the flat country, like the 
declivity of a pyramid. The whole were rugged, naked, scragged, 
and almost colourless ; as if something had suddenly torn from 
the face of nature her fertile covering, not merely leaving her 
naked, but baring her to the very bones. Strong indications of 
sulphur, copper, and iron, with here and there a glittering spot 
of talc, were plainly perceptible as the eye wandered over their 
crude masses. 
After three hours’ march, we reached the very singular 
remains of a town called Lanker-rood. They consist of large 
buildings, totally separated from each other ; each constructed 
of several central arches, supporting a pointed d ojoag.; while 
^ smaller divisions, divided again into cells, project from the body 
of the edifice ; the whole being finished with the greatest care 
and neatness. Nearly a hundred of these ins ulated struc tures, 
mingled with old walls, and towers, fallen to the most pic¬ 
turesque ruin, surround the low-roofed dwellings which form 
the present village of the name. Gardens in disordered beauty 
