'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎670r] (1360/1486)

GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTH-WEST PERSIA.
15
heroic struggle for the preservation of an immemorial freedom, has been
related by Kawlinson and Layard, the latter of whom was on terms of
intimacy with the tribal chieftains, rarely permitted to a stranger and
an Englishman. I hope that there may sometime be presented to this
Society an account of the subsequent history and present condition of
those celebrated highland clans, before the encroachments of the Persian
Government, which has for long devoted itself to the extinction of the
independence and authority of their principal chiefs, have finally
crushed them into the dull mould of uniform subjection.
The ruins which are visible on the upper course of the Karun, or
upon the banks of its tributaries, include the relics of the prosperous
and princely rule of the Atabegs in the Middle Ages, which are them
selves, in many cases, restorations of the far earlier structures of the
Sassanian or of the Kaianian kings. Here are visible a second Susan, and a
second tomb of Daniel, which led Sir H. Eawlinson to conjecture that they
must mark the site of the royal Susa of the ancients, and of “ Shushan the
palace ” of the prophet Daniel—a hypothesis which has been invalidated
by later explorations. In an adjoining plain are the far more consider
able remains of Mai Amir, consisting of four groups of rock-sculptures,
which were first visited and described by Layard, and found to belong,
three to the Kaianian, and one to the Sassanian epoch. These, viz. the
people and the ruins, are, along with the fine forests of oak, beech, and
plane there met with, the chief features of interest upon the upper
waters of the Karun.
Till quite recently this belt of country has possessed an independent
interest, connected with the opening of the Karun trade route, inasmuch
as through it runs the shortest mule track from Shushter to Ispahan,
by which, if safeguarded and improved, it was hoped that a new and
speedier overland route might be found to Ispahan from the sea.
Slightly different tracks have been followed across this region by the
various travellers, including in recent years Mr. G. Mackenzie, Major
Wells and Mr. W. Baring, General Schindler, and private friends whoso
itineraries I have seen ; but they unite in calculating the distance as
about 260 miles. Their versions of the difficulties, physical and other
wise, encountered, differ somewhat, according to the temperament of the
traveller, the season of the year selected, and the professional interests
concerned. There can be no doubt, however, that though this road is
secure, the Bakhtiaris being favourably disposed and peaceful, a good
deal of road repair, and of bridge and caravanserai A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers). building, would have
been required to render it passable for caravans, while it would have
been liable to be closed by snow in the depth of winter. It is probably
owing to these considerations that the large scheme of road construction,
of which I have previously spoken as about to be undertaken by an
English company, includes a branch road to Ispahan, not along this
route, although it is considerably the shortest from the sea, but farther