Correspondence and Papers on Persia [‎154r] (61/245)

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Geo.—Sykes—First Proof.
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RECENT JOURNEYS TO PERSIA.*
By Captain P. MOLES WORTH SYKES.
The ancient kingdom of Persia, to which I would draw your attention
this evening, is perhaps one of the most attractive countries in the
world, as not only is it rich in remains of a great antiquity, which
have been the constant theme of historians for more than two thousand
years, but to-day it presents so great a variety of interesting problems,
and has so faithfully preserved its ancient immutable civilization, that
every traveller who has once crossed its great plateau is fired with the
desire to return again and again.
Before approaching the subject of my three journeys, I would give
a very brief description of the country upon which we are about to
enter.
The kingdom of His Imperial Majesty the Shah stretches, roughly
speaking, for 1000 miles from east to west, and for 800 miles from
north to south — an area rather larger than that of the countries
composing the Triple Alliance.
In the provinces which border the Caspian sea the rainfall is very
heavy, but, with that small exception, the most noticeable feature is
the dryness of Persia, and this is the main cause of its delightful
climate. I have mentioned this before anything else, as it appears to me
that sufficient attention has not been paid to the enormous effect that
deforestation has had, not only on Persia, but on Central Asia generally.
It is this fact, and this alone, I would urge, that explains why great
armies were able to march across countries the sterility of which would,
at the present time, bar the progress of anything beyond a very moderate
force; and, conversely, it is upon the successful solution of this problem
that the future of these desiccated regions (I use the term advisedly)
depends.
To continue, both on the north and south the great Frau plateau is
held up-by mighty ranges, which aro traversal- by mule-tracts, and it
is owing to the rugged nature of these passes that the isolation of Persia
from the rest of the world is partly due. The plateau once reached, the
traveller finds himself on a broad plain with mountain ranges on each
side of him, which trend to the north-west with amazing regularity.
For instance, when travelling to my district of Kerman, a distance of
600 miles from Tehran, I traversed the same great plain throughout,
and never lost sight of the two parallel ranges at any portion of my
journey.
These mountains, which rise to great elevations, are, as my previous
remarks would show, entirely bare of timber, while the whole country
consists of a succession of oases, dependent for their existence upon
“kanats.” By this term, underground channels which tap distant
springs in the hills are meant, and it may be imagined how costly and
laborious a system this is, the water being frequently carried from a
distance of over 30 miles to the village it supplies.
There are no navigable rivers in Persia, with the exception of the
Karun, and it is extraordinary that between the Indus and this river, a
distance of over 1500 miles, no considerable body of water reaches the
sea. To the north, owing to the heavier rainfall, it is different, and
there are two or three rivers of moderate volume flowing into the
Caspian sea. ,
This summary would not be complete without a reference to the
appalling wastes known respectively as the Dasht-i-Kavir and the as t
i-Lut. These two great deserts, as a reference to the land maps will
show, stretch right across Eastern and Central Persia, with the resu 11 at
there is much less communication between neighbouring pi evinces
t^e Persian Empire than their juxtaposition would lead one to expect,
the wastes of salt-swamp and sand dividing the districts more com
pletely than any range of mountains, however difficult its passes
might be. . .
It was at the beginning of 1893 that I obtained permission to rejoin
my regiment, at that time stationed in the Punjab, via 1 ersia, an ^
first of all travelled to Odessa, where Colonel C. E. Stewart, Her Majesty e
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Paper read at the Royal Geographical Society, June 28, 1897.