É. Apor (ed.): Stein, Aurel: Old Routes of Western Iran. (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 2.)

Chapter I.—In Westernmost Färs

CHAPTER I IN WESTERNMOST FÄRS SECTION I—FROM BUSHIRE TO ARDAKÄN FOR the latest and longest of my Persian journeys Shlräz, the capital of the province of Färs since medieval times, provided a very suitable starting-point. There had ended in the spring of 1934 my third expedition in Southern Iran.

1 This had acquainted me with a great part of that ancient Persis to which Iran owed most of its historical greatness and much of its culture in the times of the Achaemenian and Sasanian dynasties, and from which it has received, not unjustly, its classical name in the West. But I had not then been able to visit that portion of the province which lies to the south-west of Shlräz and which, by reason of the important route leading through it to ancient Elam and the lands at the head of the Persian Gulf, presents a special antiquarian interest. To follow this route from Shlräz through the Mämasäni and Kohgalu hills to the plain of Khüzistän was the first aim of my resumed travels. ' See for a detailed record ' An Archaeological Tour in the Ancient Persis printed in Iraq, voL iii. pp. 11

1-225, with Pis. xix-xxx. The map on the scale of I : 750,000 accompanying that record and showing the area surveyed on that expedition had been published before by the Royal Geographical Society with a preliminary account of the same title in the Geographical Journal, vol. lxxxvi., December 1935, pp. 490-507. i B