'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎27] (58/714)

W-
WAYS AND MEANS
27
cessiUe. t
[tlienoM^
teentli century, when the Sefavi dynasty held their gorgeous
court at Isfahan, the ports of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. were the more
natural point of debarkation. Even in the early part of the
present century, while the Caucasus was still unsubdued and a
terror to travellers, the southern route was preferred by European,
and especially by English voyagers, the more so as Anglo-Persian
relations were then in the hands of the East India Company, and
were dictated and controlled from Calcutta or Bombay. It was at
Bushire that the missions of Sir John Malcolm, Sir Harford Jones,
and Sir Gore Ouseley first set foot upon the territory of the King
of kings.
Premising, therefore, that these are the simplest and most
obvious lines of access, I will commence upon the north with the
Q , t Enzeli-Teheran route, and will next describe the re-
Scheme OI 7 p T • 1 1
chapter maiuing northern approaches; after which the eastern,
southern, and western entrances will succeed each other in natural
order.
The Persian port, or rather landing-place (for, as will be seen,
Persia enjoys no such luxury as a port), on the Caspian is at
Enzeli, a village upon a low spit of land enclosing upon
I Enzeli- cd l *■
Teheran the sea side a broad but shallow lagoon, known as the
Murdab, or Dead Water, on the inner or southern shore of
which, at a slight distance from the sea, is situated the considerable
town of Resht. It is in this sense that travellers commonly speak
of landing in Persia at Resht.
Enzeli is served by the steamers of the Russian C aucasus and
Mercury Company, running from Baku, which place there are
Mea of severa ^ methods of reaching from Europe. (1) Train ma}-
reaching be taken to Constantinople, boat (Messageries, Austrian
Ellzeli Lloyd, or Russian) from thence to Batum—3 or 4 days
—and train via Tiflis to Baku—32 hours ; (2) train may be taken
via Berlin and Cracow to Odessa, and Russian steamer thence to
Batum—3 days; (3) Tiflis may be reached overland from St.
Petersburg and Moscow by rail to V ladikavkas, and by caniage
over the famous Dariel Road—-136 miles into Geoigia , (4) there
is still another method of reaching Baku, viz. by rail across Russia
to Tsaritsin, on the Volga, thence by river-boat to Astrakhan, and
thence by Caucasus and Mercury Company steamers down the
west coast of the Caspian, t ouching at Petrofsk and Dei bent l 2
days—to Baku. This is perhaps, in point of time, the most ex-
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