'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎457v] (934/1486)

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the pastures and meadows are covered with flowers of many
kinds; of the trees the following were met with :—
Two kinds of maple.
Oriental plane (chinar).
Hippophae Rhammoides.
Tamarisk (?) called Gez.
Two kinds of elm.
Oak.
Ilex.
Poplar
Hawthorn.
Rose.
Bramble.
Grape Vine.
Hop Vine.
Pear.
Walnut.
Alder.
Two kinds of willow.
Ash.
Horn bean.
Honeysuckle.
D igwood.
Goosebery.
A list of flowers collected is given as an Appendix ; some of the
specimens found are repotted as interesting.
The country visited is singularly devoid of any ancient land
marks, or evidences of past history. That it had a history is well
known, for 2 to 3,000 years ago the inhabitants of these mountain
regions left their mark in the world’s history. Macedonian soldiers
of Alexander’s army and Roman detachments of Valerian must
have trodden many of these mountain roads and occasionally gar
risoned some strategic points. But only few objects were met with
which could in anyway possibly be considered links with the distant
past. In the Gurab valley, on the summits of low eminences, but
commanding the approaches to the valley, were found 3 ruins of
lime-cemented stone buildings of small size. The local tradition
concerning them is as follows :—
“ Long before the days of the Khosroes, when bows and arrows
were the only weapons and iron unknown, there lived in this
neighbourhood a king, Farukh Padshah (? Pharoe) who had three
sons, Salmon, lur, and Iraj. On the father’s death the three
sons as in duty bound quarrelled, and each built himself an im
pregnable aerie, the remains of which still exist and bearing
their names vouch for the accuracy of the tradition. In due course
they separated, and each formed an Empire, the eldest Salmon
went westwards to Rum ; the second Tur to Turkestan, and
the youngest Iraj became the founder of the Iranian Empire.”
Personal inspection showed the walls to have followed the
shape of the hill, they are very thick (3 to 6 feet), construct
ed of stone, rough hewn and firmly cemented. The approaches
were made in such a manner that only one man could move up
to the entrance at a time. The inner space of the ruin of Fort
Tur was exceedingly small, not more than 100 square yards, but
these remains might only have been those of a citadel. Fort
Iraj was viewed from across the valley; it seemed perched on a