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

Chapter I.—In Westernmost Färs

I

O IN WESTERNMOST FÄRS [Chap. I before us. There at the wide mouth of the valley its stream meets the much larger Shash-pir draining the Ardakän plateau, and then the united Fahliün river winds along the foot of the bold table mountain of Qal'a-safid, ' the White Castle into the broad fertile tract of Fahliün, from which it takes its name onwards. At Dasht-i-raz, the first village met in Fahliün, the day's march ended. SECTION III—ALEXANDER AT THE PERSIAN GATES In my preliminary remarks above on the old trade route, which we have now followed on its passage through the mountains below the Ardakän plateau, I have referred to the special historical interest it derives from having been followed by Alexander on his march from Susiana past the ' Persian Gates ' to Persepolis. That Alexander's move led along this route, the most direct between Susiana or Khüzistän and the central portion of Färs, had already been correctly recognized by Kinneir early in the last century, and his opinion Ritter, the geographer, had justly felt prepared to share.

1 The accounts of Alexander's historians leave us in no doubt as to the reasons which induced the great conqueror to take the most direct route from Susa to Persepolis. He had to take it in order to secure in 1 See Kinneir, Geographical Memoir on the Persian Empire (1813), pp. 72 sq., 457 sq. ; Ritter, Erdkunde von Asien, vi. ' West-Asien ', pp. 136, 142 sq. [Mr. C. E. A. W. Oldham, since the above was written, has kindly drawn my attention to the fact that Major James Rennell in the Atlas of Maps intended to accompany h.s ' Treatise on the Comparative Geography of Asia ' had, before Kinneir, correctly indicated Alexander's route as passing from Behbehän towards Persepolis. This sheet of his 'Map of Western Asia ' was drawn in 1809 and printed in May 1810, i.e., before Kinneir had made his journey.]