March 15, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
III 
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one main ridge, but a very numerous succession of 
parallel ridges like a hugely magnified Jura — supposing 
that the Jura supported a Swiss plateau behind it. The 
rivers, or rather torrents, wind tortuously in and out, 
through deep cuts in these parallel walls. 
The consequence of this formation is that you cannot 
have a road rising rapidly from the Mesopotamian Plain 
on to the plateau and then remaining fairly level through- 
out its crossing of Persia. Any direct attack of this 
sort upon the Median mountains .would only lead you 
over fold upon fold of parallel ridges perpetually descend- 
ing thousands of precipitous feet into the gorges of torrents 
and rising as steeply again. The only course practical 
to traffic is to find a gap in the foremost road with 
a fairly easy valley behind it and to follow up the waters 
in a devious line and so gradually reach the height of the 
]:)tateau behind the last of the "parallel ridges. This is 
what the great Persian caravan road to India, based 
upon Bagdad, does. It seeks out the only gap of any 
breadth in the Median range— a valley standing imme- 
diately behind the town of Khanikin— behind that gap 
it finds a fairly easily graded valley, and by this valley 
it climbs up slowly on to the plateau beyond. 
'ihe details of the road are as follows : It runs from 
Bagdad a little cast of north across the plain, and nearly 
jiarallel to the Diala river until, at the end of the first 
(very long) day, it reaches the Diala itself at Bakuhci — 
reckoned some eleven or twelve hours march, and perhaps 
30 odd miles from Bagdad. 
Having thus crossed the Diala it keeps on the eastern 
side of that stream, at a little distance from it, for another 
day's march, and reaches the foothills near the mud huts 
of Mansurie, called " Mansurie of the Hills." 
On the third day's march, while still in the foothills, it 
reaches the town of Khanikin, which is the last con- 
siderable place directly ruled by the Turkish authorities. 
Here the high Median range rises before one above the 
foothills, but admits a broad gap through which pour 
the waters of a torrent affluent to the Diala and imme- 
diately in the mouth of which stands, at the end of the 
fourth day's march (a short one) the first place nominally 
under Persian rule, Kasrishirin. 
The road has already risen by this time more than 
1,500 feet above the level of Bagdad. It has so far, 
tliroughout the four days' march, pursued a north- 
easterly course. It turns here to follow in a south- 
easterly direction the upper valley of the Hulvan 
Torrent, ajid just after the hamlet of Seri-Pul it crosses 
a subsidiary pass, over one of the ridges, follows the head 
waters of the Karind torrent, and comes to the town 
which takes its name from that stream. 
Karind is usually the fifth (civihan) stage* after Bagdad, 
and was in antiquity the first town claiming Median 
freedom from Babylonian rule. It was a sort of capital 
or chief market of these mountaineers. 
The sixth day leads one to Haroutiabad, nowno more than 
a village, but recalling in its name that of its founder, 
Haroun^el-Raschid, the great Caliph of Bagdad, who 
here more than established a city, which has since 
decayed. 
A very long day (with no convenient stopping place, I 
believe, in the interval) brings one on the 7th evening to 
the considerable town of Kermanshah ; a market for 
cattle, horses and stuffs— particularly for carpets. It 
is at the junction of a road running northward- to Sihna 
and the telegraph and telephone line which follows our 
main road all the way, throws out a branch here also to 
Sihna. 
The next stage, skirting round the high rock-peak 
of Parau, rising'isolated above the high plateau on which 
one is travelling, reaches the fe\v_ huts of Bisitun at the 
foot of the mountain. It is here,' on the precipitous face 
of tlie mountain, that the reliefs of Darius are carved. 
At the end of the next day, the ninth, the stage is 
Kangaivar. Owq is here very near the watershed and has 
l^efore one the abrupt wall of the long Alwan mountain. 
It rises enormously in the midst of the plateau to a height 
of over 12,000 feet above the sea and more than 8,000 
•The civilian stagtsdw a caravan road are, of course, mucli 
larger tlian the davs' -parches of armies. An army, an organised 
body of tliousands with transport and supplies, a necessity to it, is 
heavily hindered and tied to its slowest units, has normally halt the 
mobility, at most, ol a small independeat civiliau group. 
