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

Chapter I.—In Westernmost Färs

Sec. iii] ALEXANDER AT PERSIAN GATES 25 adequate room for the camp of a considerable force such as that brought by Alexander on his march towards the ' Persian Gates From here the caravan track could be clearly seen on the opposite side of the valley winding up with a fairly easy gradient along steep wooded slopes to a point where it enters a narrow defile before attaining the pass at a height of some 6700 feet about miles farther. The precipitous rocky slopes overlooking the track at this point on both sides would make it easy for a force holding the pass and the heights near it to stop any advance towards the pass by the method of defence which the texts describe. Now it is important to note that the distance between this point and the open ground at Mullah Süsan corresponds as closely as may be to the 30 stadia or 3^ miles which Curtius, in accord with Diodorus and Polyaenus, records as the distance over which Alexander withdrew when the assault was abandoned. The wall which Ariobarzanes is said to have built to close the Gates may have been a defensive line of roughly heaped-up stones, such as are known by the term sangar throughout the mountains of Iran. Whether any remains of it could still be traced only close examination on the ground might show. Until then its position must remain uncertain. Professor Herzfeld found ruins of defensible dwellings perhaps dating from Sasanian times at a place called Chär Saräb Kharäbe at an elevation of about 5320 feet and not far from the point above indicated.

11 But it deserves to be noted that Arrian's account of the final attack by Craterus clearly distinguishes between the 1

1 See Herzfeld, Petermann'

s Mittheilungen, 1907, p. 86.