Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/294

 158 THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN PASS OF AHUAN

entrance, a high vaulted arch in the middle of the northern wall, must once have been a proud portal. It is built of stone and bricks, with cement and mortar, but the plaster that gave it a finish has worn off with the ages, and the few traces that remain are defaced by modern scrawls, contrasting strongly with the general antiquity of the crumbling pile. This gateway formed the hold khdnah^ or 'high room,' occupied for ages by the more affluent wayfarers and members of the caravan trains, while travelers of more slender means sought accommodations in the chambers below.

The interior of the structure is some forty -five yards square, and has on each side large archways which match, though in a lesser degree, the main portal, and which are balanced to right and left by minor arches leading into the smaller cham- bers for the camel drivers and ordinary men of the caravan. It was not strange that when last I saw the Ribat at evening — the rocky hill forming a rough background behind it as the sun went down — Omar's image of the ' batter'd Caravanserai ' floated before my vision, and fancy conjured up a picture of how Sultan after Sultan with his pomp must have abided his destined hour and gone his way out from these lonely walls since the time of Anushirvan the Just, nearly fifteen centuries ago. Yes, and how many must have been the long lines of caravans that were glad at nightfall to reach the safe shelter of the court, now strewn with dirt and rubbish, and overgrown with stubbly weeds. The distant bells of a camel train were even at the moment making deep intonations in the quiet air, stirred by the wings of the birds that sought cover from the clouds that were gathering dark and cold.

A shortage of horses is typical of solitary Ahuan, and an hour's sojourn was enforced upon us before we could proceed with the same relay, though the steeds cantered off at a good pace, now up and now down, till they reached the plain again, which was level as a threshing-floor. Its surface was scarce broken, save by the hummocks of earth raised around the

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