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

Chapter I.—In Westernmost Färs

Sec. iv] QAL'A-SAFlD 29 early in the morning of November 30th for the fastness, glad to let our tired mules enjoy a day's rest in camp. At the small village of Bahlu, nestling by a fine spring and luxuriant orchard in a fold of the mountain, we were joined by Khalil Khan, an intelligent Mämasänl chief, holding much of the fertile plain below. I had been told of a single path by which horses and unladen mules could be taken right up to the top. But we had scarcely covered one-half of the steep ascent on the rocky spur over which this path leads up from the west when we had to dismount and continue on foot. It was a hot climb, and the shade given by scattered clumps of oak trees was grateful. At an elevation of about 5500 feet the steep spur we had ascended came abruptly to an end at the foot of a girdle of bare wall-like cliffs (Fig. 7). They would suffice to make the mountain-top altogether unassailable on this side were it not for an extremely precipitous track, in most places scarcely more than a couple of feet wide, which winds up among fallen masses of rock and over narrow ledges of limestone for some 400 feet of vertical height. I should not have thought this climb practicable for led horses. But Khalil Khan was anxious to get our beasts along as he could promise water and grazing for them on the top. More gratifying it was to me when, clambering up this rock ladder, we came within sight of what proved a small defensive work guarding a gateway built across the approach to a narrow terrace. The semicircular arch of the gateway and the construction of the walls with large rough stones set in cement indicated a Sasanian origin for this gate-house, known as Darwäzeh-shutur-khabz. To the south it is adjoined by a terrace built up to a considerable