'A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the years 1808 and 1809, in which is included some account of the proceedings of his Majesty's Mission, under Sir Harford Jones, Bart., to the Court of the King of Persia. With twenty-five engravings from the designs of the author; a plate of inscriptions; and three maps.' [‎232] (305/524)

532
TEHERAN.
from Teheran is about forty miles ; to the base of the first moutitaiifi %
reckoned fourteen miles. We had seen it when it was at least 'onfe
liundred and fifty miles fromtts; and were told indeed, as I have ^mark
ed before, that it might be seen from the top of the minaret of the
Mesjid Shah, at lspahan, a distance of two hundred and forty miles.
It is visible from Resht, and generally along all the south of the Caspian
sea; and it is therefore very credible that that sea, which is not more
than forty miles from the base, may be seen from the summit, of Dema-
wend. But, according to some accounts, no one ever gained the top;
according to others, there is a horse-toad through the whole ascent. I
was told at Tabriz, by a man of Ma zander an, that he himself knew
several who had reached the summit; and, indeed, that Derveishes, led
by the information of their books, resorted thither from India to cull a
certain plant convertible into gold, and tinging with a golden hue the
teeth of the sheep that feed upon the mountain. At the foot Of the
Alhores are many villages and pleasure-houses, and much cultivation;
all the rest of the country in that direction is a blank with scarcely
a shrub.
On the east side of the plain of Teheran there is an elevated road of
a fine bottom running N. and S. which seems to have be&i con
nected with the city of Hey, On the 4th of March we visited the
ruins of Rey. They are situated about five miles in a south direction
from Teheran, and extend as far as the eye can reach oVer the plain,
E. and W. To the E. at the foot of a projecting range, which branches
from the Alhores, are the remains of the citadel; consisting of walls
and turrets, built of mud bricks, which in most places are distinguished
with difficulty from mounds of earth. The mass of the height, on
which it is erected, seems rather of earth than of rock. Near the foot
of the citadel stands a tower, which by our hasty calculation may be
about fifty feet in height. It is built of a very fine species of brick,,
cemented by mortar. Its exterior is arranged in twenty-four trian
gular compartments, the base of each being about five feet, giving a