'Notes of a journey from Kasreen to Hamadan across the Karaghan country. By J. D. Rees' [‎19r] (42/54)

FROM KASVEEN TO HAMADAN.
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in Persia. Ferdousi’s description of the city of Kung might well
apply to it:—
“ Warmth without.heat and coolness without chill.”
Small wonder was it that the kings of the Assyrians coveted
this retreat from the scorching summer plains of Babylon, and
that the kings of the Medes made it their hot-weather capital.
The very stones on the road were not as other stones, but largely
mixed with a marble-like white quartz, which the excited imagin
ation of a tired traveller, with the tomb of Esther and Mordecai
before him, might almost take for the fragments of the palaces
of aforetime, of Shusan the palace, the far off pleasure-house of
Ahasuerus the king.
The setting sun gilded the waves of corn and tinted the snowy
top of Elwand before I entered the city gates, near which I passed 150
asses laden with snow, sure promise of cool sherbet and other
creature comforts within.
The approach to Hamadan made a great impression on me.
Luckily I descended upon it from the hills and did not crawl
into it from the plain by the path as others have. Added to this
it was a lovely day and the wheat was yet uncut. I thought it a
rich landscape, such as Turner might have painted, bringing to
life for the occasion to grace the scene the kings and warriors
carved in imperishable rock at Besitoon and elsewhere on this
once grand highway from Babylon to Persepolis.
Of the ancient city, however, its natural beauty alone remains.
The modern town of Hamadan is one of the largest in Persia
containing over 30,000 inhabitants. All the necessaries of
life are extraordinarily cheap here. Dates and French sugar,
Manchester goods, tea, and hardware are imported from Baghdad
and dried grapes, almonds, skins, and carpets are exported. I
was told that an Armenian lately came here from Mashad to buy
cows and sheep for the Russians on the Afghan frontier, a queer
story if true.
The sights of the town are three :—the tomb of Esther and
Mordecai, who were, I was assured by the Jew who showed me
around, husband and wife; the Gumbaz-i-Alabian, the remains of
an ancient tomb with a florid internal decoration of the same
character as that of the tomb near the Kutb Minar at Delhi; and a
lion by the roadside, which was carved either before they had
learnt or after they had forgotten the art of sculpture.
The mausoleum of Queen Esther is a poor little arched building,
entered by a low door closed by a curious lock. It is odd to see