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 31 decayed dwellings fragments of glazed pottery, many multi-coloured, and pieces from glass vessels and bangles could be picked up in plenty. One of the multicoloured sherds shows Chinese design. At a distance of about 125 yards below the highest point of the plateau there survives the ruin of a house built with large roughly cut stones set in very hard mortar (Fig. 9). It forms a square of about 20 yards outside, and within shows dividing walls of small rooms surrounding a court. The arch of the door on the north side giving access to the court is semicircular and intact. Of a similarly constructed house, some 380 yards farther down, the walls still stand to a height of 4-5 feet. From this ruin stones had been carried off to two modern huts and set in rough courses without mortar. Below this built-over part of the ridge for about one-third of a mile there was flat fertile ground which in recent times had been planted with vines, some of the trailing branches still showing life. A narrow offshoot of this range was said to be approachable from below by a difficult track leading through a walled gateway known as Gulistän-darwäzeh. The track is impracticable even for led animals. Near the above-mentioned spring between the two middle ridges there lies a square cella with solidly built walls of old appearance, repaired with later rough masonry. It contains some inscribed Muhammadan tombstones, and is supposed to be the resting-place of a holy man named Häjl Rustam. The third ridge running almost due north, at first with a fairly level top, was followed to a point where it breaks off with wall-like cliffs. From here could be seen, some 400 feet below, a solidly built semicircular wall closing access to the gorge on the western side of the ridge with