É. Apor (ed.): Stein, Aurel: Old Routes of Western Iran. (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 2.)
Chapter I.—In Westernmost Färs
Sec. v] K ÖTAL-I-SANGAR TO BÄSHT 51 the western side ; the surviving portion measured 39 feet along the eastern face with 19 to 24 feet remaining on the other two faces. The method of construction with metal clamps securing the large slabs pointed to the Achaemenian or the immediately succeeding period. The purpose of the isolated structure once standing on this solid base seemed very puzzling until a block of massive stonework just opposite, high up on the precipitous rock face of the right bank, attracted my attention. It suggested that this small tower-like ruin and the massive structure once facing it on the much lower left bank may have served to anchor some kind of suspension bridge, older than either of the two ruined bridges. The bed of the river is here distinctly narrower than at either of the bridge sites. The approach on the cliff of the right bank is very narrow and rocky, but might, when built up, have admitted men on foot and led animals. In any case such a bridge, constructed like one of the ' rope bridges ' or jhulas in Kashmir or the Hindukush, would have sufficed to assure communication whenever the river was unfordable. That the old caravan road towards the Bäsht valley led here over the Pul-i-Brin, as the site of the ruined bridges is known, is certain. Apart from the river passage it is an easier and more direct route than the one leading across the rugged Köh-i-Yakün. For the same reason I was not surprised to learn later on at Ahwäz that the construction of a bridge of some kind was being planned at the Pul-i-Brin in order to make the track from Behbehän to Fahliün throughout practicable for motor cars at all seasons. It must be hoped that if this proposal is carried
