Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/246

 128 ON THE TRACK OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

This notable defile is now generally believed to represent the Caspian Gates, or KdaTriai HvXat and Caspiae Portae of the Greek and Latin writers, and to be the mountain strait through which Alexander pursued Darius.

Having ridden or driven through the pass three different times and having made close observations of it after several years of study upon the subject, I feel sure of the accuracy of this identification. On the latest journey, moreover, I had an opportunity to compare it with the Sialak (^Sidldk) Pass, a com- panion defile running parallel with it, about two or three miles north, through the mountain. I have contrasted it, further- more, with the Firuz Kuh Pass, which lies many miles remote from it toward the north, or at nearly double its distance from Teheran. The details of this examination will be found in a special monograph, entitled Caspiae Portae, or the Caspian Gates, to be published later. These researches have fully convinced me that the only defile through which Alexander led his troops was the Sar-Darrah, as is generally accepted. I emphasize this, because doubts have sometimes been thrown on the subject.^ It is certain that the Firuz Kuh Pass must be left out of con- sideration because of its extreme remoteness from the city Rhagae (Rai, near Teheran), a distance of over ninety miles, which Alexander could not have covered in a single day, as he is stated historically to have done ; and there is abundant evi- dence besides to exclude that particular defile. As for the Sialak Pass, in behalf of which Rawlinson made a plea because of its greater likeness to Pliny's description of the Caspian Gates,2 there are sufficient adverse reasons, especially the

1 For example, Lord Curzon (Per- Sar-Darrah in company with Rawlin- sia, 1. 293-297) had some hesitation son, whose authority he especially cites. on the subject. The plural, Caspian Gates, Chodzko

2 See Chodzko, Une Excursion de believes (pp. 301-302) was to be ex- TeheranauxPyles Caspiennes(1835), plained by the fact of there being in Nouvelles annales des voyages, nou- two passes — Sialak and Sar-Darrah. velle serie, annee 1850, 3. 280-308, The name of the former, Rawlinson Paris, 1850. Chodzko made the ex- thought, might be due to Alexander's cursion through the Sialak and the general, Seleucus ; and both believed

�� �