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

viii INTRODUCTION survey appealed to me all the more strongly since much of the ground to be visited had so far been but inadequately mapped or had remained altogether unsurveyed. The travels described in these pages took me in the course of thirteen months, from November 1935 onwards, across six different provinces of Iran which owing to their historical past or for other reasons offered a field of special attraction to me. My preceding journey, the third, had carried me in 1933-4 through the eastern and major portion of Färs, that ancient Persis which had given Iran its greatest dynasties, the Achaemenians and Sasanians, and through the vast expansion of their power had made it under its classical name of Persia famous in the West. From Shiräz, the medieval and modern capital of the province, the new journey started. It led through the western hill tracts of Färs and allowed me definitely to trace the old route which had seen Alexander, after overcoming serious difficulties, force his passage through the ' Persian Gates ' towards Persepolis, the great capital of the Achaemenian Empire. Close examination of the topography of the route was here to prove once again how the scene of a great event if studied on the ground often helps to restore to full clearness a picture which historical record has preserved only in half-effaced outlines. Moving down by the same route it became possible to locate another exploit of Alexander, his defeat of the Uxian hillmen, and to examine a famous mountain stronghold which figures in Tímür's story. In passing through adjacent hill tracts of the Khüzistän province interesting ruins of Sasanian times could be studied and trial excavations carried out at prehistoric