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

Chapter II. —In Kohgalu Tracts

62 IN KOHGALU TRACTS [Chap. II walls of rough stones and mortar, belonging to a fortified dwelling measuring some 54 by 48 feet, with potsherds including ribbed ware of uncertain date. Rough breastworks of loose stones suggested occupation as a place of refuge in recent days. But curiously enough no cistern or other provision for water, indispensable for defence, could be traced. An easy march of some 8 miles through pleasantly wooded hill scenery brought us next to the roadside station of Khan Hammäd. Three badly decayed cisterns on the road and three more by the side of a large ruined serai afforded evidence of the former traffic which this road had known, and also gave warning of the scantiness of water to be experienced farther on. It is of interest to note that Khän Hammäd still retains the name of a station mentioned in itineraries of early Arab geographers from Arrajän, the forerunner of Behbehän, towards Naubandagän.

1 The old route, which we continued to follow on December 8th, first led up very steeply through a narrow winding valley to the saddle of Kulak (circ

. 3600 feet). While oak trees were still plentiful in the valley the distant view obtained to the west from the saddle across a wide plain traversed by parallel chains of limestone hills prepared us for a change to distinctly more arid physical conditions. On the descent tree growth soon ceased, and a succession of ruined cisterns showed how the want of water must have made itself felt from here onwards also for wayfarers of earlier times.

2 The cisterns are all of rect1 See Schwarz, Iran im Mittelalter

, pp. 6. 173, 175, 177. 1 It is obviously due to this difficulty about water that travellers nowadays often take to a devious route in the north, passing through the valleys of Närak and Boramiün, where springs can be found. For a description of this route, followed by Professor Herzfeld, see Petermann's Mittheilungen, p. 83 sq.