'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎342] (391/714)

PERSIA
in the lives of Englishmen ; 1 Eshretabad, a very pretty place, of
which I give an illustration, where the main pavilion is occupied by
the Shah, and seventeen smaller pavilions, situated round a lake,
by the ladies who accompany him (a creditable reduction from the
standards of his great grandfather), and where also is to be seen a
painting of Fath Ali seated in durbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). with the foreign ambassadors
before him; Niaveran, orNioberan; Agdasieh, near Niaveran:
Nejefabad ; and Suleimanieh, of which I have spoken in Chapter II.
These are all in the immediate neighbourhood of Teheran, and the
majority of them are situated on the hill-slope known as Shimran, 2
a cultivated belt extending for a length of about twenty miles
along the base of the great scarp of the Elburz, that towers like
a prodigious natural rampart above the plain of Teheran on the
north. Fath Ali Shah set the example of retreat to this cooler,
because more elevated, site; and the large number of trees and
gardens which have been planted in consequence of its since
universal adoption is said to have had a very appreciable effect in
lowering the temperature and increasing the rainfall of the
capital.
One result of the royal partiality for suburban residences has been
the construction or the improvement of the roads that lead thereto
Doshan- from the city. A very passable road, planted for the
Tepe most part with trees, leads to Gulahek on the north; and
another such road, affording the solitary carriage-drive of Teheran,
conducts between stiff rows of poplars in a straight line north-east,
towards yet another villa, known, from the rocky eminence on
which it is placed, as Doshan-Tepe (or the Rabbit Hill). The rock
is an ugly excrescence from the plain at the distance of three miles
from the city; and the palace is from the outside a yet uglier ex
crescence upon the rock. It is, however, a favourite hunting-lodge
of the Shah's when he goes shooting in the neighbouring mountains,
which are kept as a royal preserve. At the foot of the rock is a large
and shady garden, where, in a long row of cages or dens, are kept
the wild beasts of the Shah's menagerie. The animals themselves
struck me as fine specimens, but they were badly housed, and
their number was small. The popularity of the place, however, a^
1 Excellent descriptions of this palace are given by Stack (Six Months in
Persia, vol. ii. pp. 155-157), and Orsolle (Le Caucase et la Perse, pp. 283-5).
2 The popular etymology—Shem-i-Iran, i.e. Light of Iran—is again absurd.
Shimran is an old Persian word, the origin and meaning of which are unknown.