384 
SIN SIN. 
chapow, or the public invasion, can have but one character ; a bar¬ 
barous seizure by strength, of the properties of the feeble. And, 
often, to what end ? The ruins of this valley can make the true reply. 
Though we had gained the plain, we did not quit our moun¬ 
tain land-mark on the right, whose elevations seemed to increase 
as we proceeded. We had journeyed by their side, all the way 
from Koom; sometimes within a mile of their base; at others, 
traversing the lower defiles, or crossing the minor hills ; and the 
same lofty chain to the west, with the desert on the east, were 
to be our flanking lines, to the gates of Kashan. There, leaving 
the desert to the north-east, we were to plunge at once into the 
very heart of the great mountain-road ; through this immense 
south-eastern branch of Taurus, but which, in this country, bears 
a variety of local names. 
Advancing at the foot of the hills, from Dhay Nain, we found 
cultivation in a very respectable state; and, in about an hour’s 
ride, arrived at the caravansary of Sin Sin ; a spacious building, 
lately erected by order of the Shah, of the best stone and 
workmanship. The town from which it derives its name, is a 
complete ruin ; but still possessing the remains of many domed 
edifices, sufficiently entire to show that they bore the same style 
of architecture with those I had remarked at Lanker-rood, and 
at Dhay Nain. At the first of these places, I was at a loss to 
guess their purpose; the form being something of a temple or 
mosque shape ; but finding them divided into domestic apart¬ 
ments at Dhay Nain ; and seeing them again, here at Sin Sin, 
and so numerous ; I cannot now doubt that so extraordinary 
an architecture for dwelling-houses, was, nevertheless, the ge¬ 
neral taste in this part of Persia, at the time these towns held 
their greatest consequence. At the distance of a few hundred 
