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

Chapter I.—In Westernmost Färs

Sec. i] FROM BUSHIRE TO ARDAKAN 9 found on the top, may have been occupied as a place of safety in late times. When moving on November 25th north-westwards to Ardakän town I took occasion to visit the conspicuous hillock known as Tul-i-Naghära,

' the Mound of the Kettledrum ', and considered to be an old site. The way to it led across the deeply eroded bed of the Shash-pir stream and then along the foot of swelling hills overlooking the wellcultivated lands of Kushkak village. At the head of the depression occupied by the village rise numerous copious springs which help to swell the volume of the Shash-pir. Above a boggy terrace where some of these springs gather rises the Tul-i-Naghära, reached after a march of 6 miles from Tul-i-gird. The hillock, measuring at its foot about 105 yards from north-west to south-east and 54 yards across, is a natural formation of rubble and alluvial clay crowned at a height of some 50 feet by a much-decayed wall built with undressed stones and forming a rectangle of 70 by 35 yards. Coarsely painted potsherds with geometrical designs picked up on the slopes below seemed to suggest occupation in early historical times. The hillock with its precipitous slopes offers a strong position for defence, and a ruined structure within the circumvallation was said to have been occupied as a place of refuge during recent disturbed times. Moving 2 miles farther, over down-like ground of limestone, we passed the stream coming from Ardakän, and below the picturesque orchard-girt village of Bereshna came to the hillock called Tul-i-Khargösh, ' the Hare's Mound'. This, too, proved a natural formation. It rises to some 40 feet above a lively streamlet descending from