"رحلات في آشور، ميديا، وبلاد فارس، بما في ذلك رحلة من بغداد مروراً بجبل زاغروس وصولاً إلى حمدان، في أكباتانا القديمة، والبحوث في أصفهان وأطلال برسبوليس، ورحلة منها مروراً بشيراز وشابور وصولاً إلى ساحل البحر. وصف البصرة، بوشهر، البحرين، هرمز، ومسقط، وسرد لحملة ضد قراصنة الخليج العربي، مع رسومات توضيحية لرحلة بحرية لنيرتشوس، والمرور ببحر العرب إلى بومباي. [‎٤‎٣‎٣] (٥٨٢/٤٦٤)

DOWN THE PERSIAN GULF.
433
employed an artist to drain the place, who dug a subterraneous
canal, and when he opened it, was himself chained round the mid
dle for safety, but was borne away by the strength of the current.
The passage itself then fell into ruins. Ardeschir subsequently
built on the same place the city of Ardeschir Khoureh, which was
afterwards repaired by Adhad-el-Dowla, a Dilemite prince, who
called it Firouzabad. Here the same writers assure us that all the
water which was used for drinking was procured from the brook
of Khanikan, since called Beraveh, or Bezazeh, and that the air of
the place was bad and corrupt.
Notwithstanding these defects, however, this capital of the dis
trict of Ardeschir was celebrated, as Dr. Vincent observes, for its
gardens, its vineyards, and its roses, as pre-eminent in Persia, as
those of Paestum in Italy; and Eastern geographers, while they
praise the inhabitants as being a sensible and honest race, do not
omit to mention, that there was finer rose-water made here than
in any part of the other provinces of the kingdom. #
The ruins of this city are still very considerable, according
to the reports given by a native of Fasa to Mr. Morier, and by
him, the Atesh Gau, or chief fire-temple of the Guebres, is placed
in a cave at Firouzabad. Col. Kinnier, however, who seems to
speak from personal observation, makes the Atesh Kudda, or fire -r
temple of Firoze Shah, to be a building with three immense domes,
and three small apartments before and behind, arched with small
rough stones, and cemented with lime. This, I should think, was
much more likely to be the remains of the lofty edifice of Ivan,
which was reared in the centre of the city for catching a pure air;
and the style of a building with three immense domes would be
more suited to such a purpose than to a fire-temple.
I remember a similar error of Captain Lockett, who is said
to have pronounced the Birs, or Tower of Belus at Babylon,
to have been a fire-temple also. It is well known, however,
that caves and elevated places, on the tops of mountains, were
frequently chosen by the fire -worshippers for their devotions; and
* De Sacy, Mfemoires, p. 346.
3 K