Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/280

 148 THROUGH PLACES PASSED ON ALEXANDER'S ROUTE

rises a dome crowned with a blue cupola, while not far away stands a towered building that lends height to the effect.

The post-house to which we galloped up was built on the made road just before entering the town, and proved to be a structure of considerable merit, not the ordinary dilapidated affair to which one becomes distressingly accustomed. In many ways it reminded me of the tall baths and caravansarais to be seen at Isfahan and Kashan.^ The man in charge was polite and attentive, and obligingly gave us permission to drive at once through the town before returning to unhitch our tired horses and put up for the night.

The town is surrounded by the familiar mud ramparts, turreted by bastions, and penetrated by gates decorated with fancy tiling. The portal that belongs to the Citadel, which extends out from the wall on the northwest side, is called Darvdz-i Ark, ' Citadel Gate,' and is gaudily capped by a painted arch portraying the combat between the hero Rustam and the Div-i Safid, or * White Demon,' as described in the national epic of Iran.^

At this point it may be worth while to include in translation a passage from Shah Nasir ad-Din's diary in regard to the Cita- del and to Semnan as it appeared to him on the occasion of his visit in the spring of 1865. The paragraph is as follows : —

has a strong fortress and bulwarks. Inside the garrison are several small houses, mostly ruined. The rooms of the Citadel are private chambers and reception rooms ; there is a garden, with two or three dilapidated chambers and a spacious round bath. The court of the inner apartments has two large tanks, north and south ; and on the east and west ends of the court there are several chambers and upper rooms. In many respects the Citadel resembles the Castle of the Kajars at Teheran. Within it is built a stage [for the performance of religious plays during the Muharram], and daily a religious play is held here by the order of the Shah.' ^
 * The Citadel was built by Haji Bahman Mirza Baha ad-DauIah, and

1 Such as those pictured in Coste, Paris, 1876 ; "Warner, Shdhndma, 2. Monuments modernes de la Perse, pi. 59-62 ; see also pp. 223-224, below. 46, 56, Paris, 1867. » From Nasir ad-Din Shah's Siyd-

2 Mohl, Livre des rois, 1. 426-427, hat, pp. 48-49 (see above, p. 144, n. 3).

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