'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎60] (91/582)

60
FROM SERPOOL, ACROSS MOUNT ZAGROS,
There were several passes in Mount Zagros, noted by the
ancients as communicating between Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana.
Strabo enumerates three, the first of which passed by Messabate-
nus, # and is thought to be the royal road mentioned by Diodo-
rus Siculus, from Susa to Ecbatana ;f the second went from
Gabiene to Susa,J and was no doubt that which traversed the
country of the Cosseans; § and the third went directly from
Media into Persia. All of these, however, must have been to the
southward of our place of crossing the chain, and this corre
sponded more accurately with the situation of the Pylae Zagriensis,
or Median Pylae, properly so called, of which the height was esti
mated by Polybius to be about a hundred stadia. || The details
of Alexander's return from Ecbatana to Babylon are not suffi
ciently minute to decide on the precise route which he followed ;
but as this last pass lies in the shortest and most direct way, there
is sufficient ground to infer that it was by this he returned after
his expedition against the Cosseans of the mountains, during the
winter, with Ptolemy, his general, as related at length by Arrian.f
From the Tauk we continued still to ascend by a winding
path, with a steep valley beneath us, and an abundance of trees
and several fine springs around us in different stages of our way,
over these mountains, as that, with a very little trouble, they soon found themselves standing
over the heads of those who guarded the passes below. The guards, seeing this, soon
fled; and as the Macedonians had now surmounted the chief difficulty of their march,
and were in complete possession of the pass, the cities of the Uxians soon submitted to their
power. From hence, it is said, the King decamped and marched towards Persia, and the
fifth day came to a place called the Susian Rocks, which was another pass, and guarded also
by a large Persian force.— Arriaris Expedition of Alexander, b. xvii. c. 7. p. 550.
Both these passes were, unquestionably, through the range of hills dividing Persia from
the Turkish Empire and from Khusistan, and known among the ancients as Mount Zagros.
The first of them may very probably be the present one of the Tauk, where the arch and
ancient road remain; and the last, a pass further to the southward, in a line between this
place and Persepolis, and nearly abreast of Susa, as its name would surest.
* Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 744.
t Diodorus Siculus, lib. xix. c. 19. |
§ Ibid, and Arrian's Expedition, b. vii. c. 15, h p 0 i ybius Hist lib , v
H Arrian's Expedition of Alexander, b. vii. c. 15.