Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/253

 The direction to the opening of the gorge (which otherwise might easily be missed) is made visible long in advance by the whitened, dusty trail left by the caravans as of yore. No such track marked the way to Sialak, on the other hand, though its entrance could be discerned a couple of miles to the north, be- tween two low hills, one with a tawny top of sand, the other with a brownish crest; and our driver, like the postmaster, in- sisted that the only route used by caravans was through the Sar-Darrah Pass.

The mountains on the left of the entrance to the Sar-Darrah are high ; the range on the right consists of hills of lower ele- vation. The ingress itself had formerly been protected by defensive works, on the right or lower elevation. ^ The base of one of these fortresses was of stone, surmounted by ramparts of reddish brown brick, and the structure was fairly preserved; the other was older and was in a ruinous condition ; both forts, in truth, looked to be little more than monuments of the fact that they once had been able to bar the right of way. The strategic value of the pass was manifest. Alexander knew it well. So did Darius, but he dared not make the stand. Ex- actly two thousand years later (1731) the Afghans, after taking Isfahan, were able to check Nadir Shah at this very spot, as he came from Khurasan to attack them.^

The road by which our wagons entered the gorge was a winding declivity, short but steep. The wheels had to be chained and the horses led, as the slope was too precipitous and the road too cramped for really safe driving without this pre- caution. A short ascent followed before descending into the actual gulch and reaching the bed of the stream. The margins of this hurrying rivulet, which furrows its way through rubble and brownish clay, were incrusted with salt, and its waters were

1 On the remains of these fortifica- 2 gee Trailhier, Memoire descriptif

tions, see also Fraser, Narrative of a de la route a Meched, in Bull. soc.

Journey into Khorasdn, p. 294, Lon- geog. 2 ser. 9. 117, Paris, 1838 ; and

don, 1826 ; O'Donovan, Merv, 1. Morier, Second Journey through Fer-

368. sia, 2. 366.

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