'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎237r] (490/820)

effects of frequent earthquakes which prevail in this district. All the houses
were of mud, and nearly all flat-roofed ; though a new kind of building is
said to be built. It consists of a tent roof with no walls, erected of poles
tied to each other and to a ridge pole, the ends buried in the earth, and the
whole covered with a layer of earth. There is a poor bazar ; with scarcely
anything in it, beyond the ordinary country produce ; but a good number
of copper pots and woollen stockings are made and exported via Rasht :
sheepskin pelisses are also manufactured. Outside the town for more
than a mile round is one vast vineyard, and an excellent wine is produced.
Beyond this radius, there is a large extent of wheat cultivation. In the
north-east of the town is a hill rising about 150 feet at a distance of 2,500
or 3,000 yards, which is called Nadir-i -Tappeh and completely commands the
town at this range. The town is fo;tiffed in the usual manner, and must
have been a strong place at one time ; the ditch being about 35 feet deep
and 30 feet broad, and the line of fortification extending about a mile and
a half in circumference. The walls, however, in many places were knocked
down by the earthquake of 1872, and have not since been repaired. A fine
stream flows past the north side of the town, irrigating the lands. on
either bank as far as Shlrvan, and eventually falling into the Atrak. Kuchan
is noted for its fruits, as well as its grapes.—(Rarwes ; Na'pier ; MacGregor.)
Kuchan has got two gates, Darvazeh-i-Meshed and Darvazeh-i-Bujnurd.
The mound with the ruined citadel stands in the middle of the town, and the
rums are inhabited by gipsies and called Mahalkh-i-Karishmal (gipsies). The
town has 8 mahallehs : Mahalleh-i-Sandalsuz, Baba Khanjar, Kara Ulang,
Pa-i-Kharas, Pa-i-Chinar, Sarban Mahalleh, Pa-i-Bagh, Mahalleh-i-ShahvardI
Khan ; 8 mosques, and 10 public baths. A great space in the southern
part of the town, about one quarter of the area within the town wall, is
covered with fields ; this was the part of the town destroyed by the crown-
prince ’Abbas Mirza when he besieged the town about 65 years ago. It is
now called Kurd Mahalleh.—(ScAmRer.)
Kuchan was again visited by a severe earthquake in 1894, which des
troyed most of the town.— (F. McSwiney.)
The shops are all being constructed of wooden posts, with the interstices
only filled up with mud and plastered over. The posts are all jointed
and tied together to make the building as firm and yet as light as possible,
with a view to future earthquakes ; the great pity is that when rebuilding
the shops, the Shuja’-ud-Dauleh did not take the opportunity to make the
people widen the street, but, as it is, everybody is rebuilding on the site
of his former house, or wherever he likes, without any reference to order
or regularity. Owing to the press of work wages are said to be abnormally
high, carpenters and masons getting as much as 8 and 10 Jcrdns a day. The
population, which is now said to have decreased to 20,000, are still mostly
housed in the wigwams and shanties run up by them with old timber after
the earthquake, and no attempt has been made at rebuilding the town in
general. The place is quite free, however, from all smell.
Kuchan appears to have no particular industry ; coarse silk cloth for coats
and bed-wrappers, and woollen and silk socks are the only manufactures.
The population of the town is rated much too high, I think, by the
Shuja’-ud-Dauleh and his Bounty Governor. The latter numbered it at