É. Apor (ed.): Stein, Aurel: Old Routes of Western Iran. (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 2.)
Chapter I.—In Westernmost Färs
64 IN WESTERNMOST FA RS [Chap. I outworks (irpoTeígia-ixa) defending the pass and the walls (ra reí^v) to which those first facing Craterus at the former retired to find the latter already occupied by Ptolemy's Macedonians. The defensive line of sangars may well have been thrown up at the watershed, and it is just beyond this to the south-east that there stretches the open flat trough of 'Aliäbäd which would have allowed adequate camping-places for Ariobarzanes' large force. That Alexander after his turning movement had brought him to the rear of the pass first attacked the Persian camp is clearly stated by Arrian, and there on the flat ground of 'Aliäbäd the trench ( tó ^ o ?) mentioned by him would have to be looked for. We find the same close agreement also between the topographical facts and Arrian's account of Alexander's difficult march from his camp to the rear of the ' Gates '. The distance of " some hundred stadia ", or about 12\ miles which Arrian's text states to have been traversed on Alexander's turning movement "on a rough and narrow path", agrees closely with the distance to be covered on the difficult ascent from Mullah Süsan to the Bolsöru pass and over much broken ground along an eastern outlier of the Pasköhak massif to 'Aliäbäd. Similarly essential points in Curtius's description of the march are supported by the physical features of the ground. The half-way halt between the two night marches was necessarily imposed by the very trying nature of the ground. For the rapid advance of the detachment under Philotas and Coenus towards the plain the route struck beyond the Bolsöru saddle and leading over the Ardakän plateau to Kulär and Marw-dasht offered indeed that easy and fertile ground which the text mentions.
