Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/261

 man. When we had almost reached the western egress, my mounted guard and I were brought to a sudden standstill, as the fallen rocks absolutely blockaded the way. The guide told me that when the storm dislodged the crag the pent-up waters had surged like a sea. The boulders were jumbled together in a chaotic mass over fifty feet high, and I hesitated for a moment to mount the insecure pile lest some unwonted move might dislodge another avalanche of stones from above. But climbing to the top with caution, I found it possible to peer over to the other side of the barrier and observe how the water, though subsiding, was still held back by the dam so unceremoniously constructed by nature at the mouth of the pass; and it was easy to understand how such a defile had originally been created by the gradually but powerfully exerted force of water. In the whole gorge there was certainly much to remind one of Pliny's description of the Caspian Gates ; but — as I have already stated — it would have been sheer folly on Alexander's part to think of attempting to take troops through the Sialak Pass when the easier Sar-Darrah was at his disposal.^

I retraced my way back out of the Sialak and was once more on the outskirts of the Plain of Khvar.

The district of Khvar {KJivdr^ pronounced Khar) is well watered and fertile and corresponds to the former Parthian territory of Choarene, mentioned in the classics,^ or to the Khvarih of the Pahlavi writings,^ and the Khuvar of the Arab- Persian geographers. The latter speak of the town of Khuvar

1 Consult again the note on p. 128 Pa-tu-us-ar-ra {i.e. Patus'ara) in inscr. above, for a different view by Rawlin- of Assarheddon (681-668 b.c), see son and Chodzko. Eduard Meyer, Zt. f. vgl. Sprachfor-

2 See Isidor of Charax, Mansiones schung, 42. 8-9 ; Marquart, Unter- Parthicae, 8 ; of. also Ptolemy, 6. 5. 1, suchungen, 2. 71-77 (where additional 3; Strabo, 11. 9. 1, C. p. 514; Orosius, references, Arabic, Persian, and Ar- 1. 2. 16. menian, are given) ; also in the Pahlavi

« See Bd. 12. 2, khvdrih. The name name of the mountain Patashkhvargar

is found also in the last element of (see below, p. 210), although this last

UaTCKTxopeis, Strabo, 15. 3. 1, C. p. point is doubted by Marquart, p. 71. 727 ; 0. P. PdtisuvariS, NRc ; Assyr.

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