'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME II' [‎188v] (381/706)

364
KIZ—KOG
each of its two branches, as it forces its way through the defile of Rudbar anl
the n ,rrow valley of Rustamabad. Having traversed Gllan the Safid Riid,
as it is now called, finally enters the Caspian Sea, 57 miles east of Rasht,
after a north-easterly course of nearly 490 miles from its source.
The bed of this river is generally many hundred feet below the surface
of the adjoining country. The road from Zinjan to Rasht leads along its
bamc, and is described by Sutherland as one of the grandest and most
terrific scenes he ever witnessed. The frightful roar of the waters is
heard at a distance, and an unwary step would instantaneously precipitate
the traveller into the gulf below ; but near the pass of Rudbar it becomes '
less deep, and when passing through the plain of Gilan, the banks of the
river are low and swampy, and the current moderate. The latter portion,
to the point 40 miles north of Rasht, where it falls into the Caspian, is called
S did Rud. At its mouth the river is of great bre adth and of considerable
depth withm the bar. A grert sturgeon fishery h »s been established here,
iditeen miles from the sea the Safid Rud divides into four branches forming
an extensive island or delta. These are : the Safid Rud, which is the
furthest east; the Salarjut (formerly a canal now a branch of the river);
the Yazechhai ar.d the Hasan Kiadeh. The valley is sometimes dis gree-
ably hot, but has excellent pasture,ge, and some considerable tracts of
cultivated land in it. It was on the banks of this river that Mr. Brown,
the traveller, was murdered in 1810.
The Kizil Uzun is the “ Mardus ” of the ancients.
K1ZILVANK—
A picturesque village, 2 miles below ’Abbasabad at the western mouth
of a precipitous gorge through winch the river Aras flows between ’Abbasa-
bad and Julfa. The village is overlooked by a beautiful Armenian church
with fortified walls. A footpath runs at the foot of the precipices through
. the gorge, but is on both banks exceptionally difficult and untrustworthv
owing to the wearing away of the pathway by the spring floods It is
seldom used, except by foot travellers. The ford starts from a pebbly bed
on the Persian siae and runs obliquely upstream in the direction of the
church Banks on both sides easy ; water knee deep for horses in summer
and chest deep in autumn. Sand and pebbly bottom. There is the usual
Cossack guard of 10 men.
From Kizilyank westward the country is comparatively open the river
dividing the rich valley of Nakhjivan and Shah Tukht on the north from
the sterile valley of Abbasabad, and Arab on the south.— (Picot, 1894.)
KOCHANES—
A village m the Urumleh district of Azarbaijan, in which lives
arch of the Nestonan Christians.—(IFar Office, “ Persia.”)
KOGlR—
the
Patri-
A village in the Kazvln district
Khani valley near Pachinar on the
mer.— {Schindler).
, on the Yuzbashi river in the Hasan-
Kazvm-Rasht road. Deserted in sum-