É. Apor (ed.): Stein, Aurel: Old Routes of Western Iran. (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 2.)
Chapter II. —In Kohgalu Tracts
Sec. i] BASHT TO KHAIRÄBÄD RIVER 6 3 of it are visible in the bed. All the surviving arches are pointed and these as well as the type of masonry indicate construction in Muhammadan times. The rough cemented stonework inside is faced throughout with dressed slabs of no great size in regular courses. The sandstone of the cliffs on either bank furnished material for this facing ready to hand. The piers and arches present a picture of combined constructive elegance and strength, and display in various details considerable engineering skill. Thus a vaulted passage running at right angles to the direction of the bridge through each of the piers and provided with arched openings on either side of the latter was, perhaps, meant to lighten the stress exercised by the weight of masonry needed to carry the roadway at the desired height. In the pier nearest to the central arch on the left bank this vaulted passage is accessible by a flight of steps from below, and the same appears to be the case at the piers of the right bank. In the very massive semicircular buttress of the great pier above the right bank there is seen a second opening below the one which serves the passage higher up. To give some indication of the dimensions of separate parts of the bridge it may be mentioned that the arch on the left bank nearest to the fallen central arch has a span of 12 feet, a width of 28 feet, a height of 14 feet from the present ground-level and carries above its top masonry to a height of 13 feet. Beneath the arch the inner faces of the piers have two niches 3 feet deep and 4 feet wide. The roadway above the piers and arches on the left bank has a total width of 25 feet, including parapets 2 feet 6 inches thick and 2 feet high.
