'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.' [‎332] (363/582)

002 VISIT TO THE RUINS OF SHAPOOR.
altogether among the poorest and most destitute of all the pas
toral tribes that I had ever seen.
In about an hour we came close under the foot of the eastern
hills which bound the plain, and passed on our left two branches
of the river Sasoon, which were called respectively Reza-abad,
and Khoda-abad, lying close to each other, and afterwards wind
ing in different directions through the plain. Above us, on the
eastern hill, were the ruins of a castle, called Khallah Dokhter,
very poorly built, of unhewn stone and mortar, and from its form
apparently a recent Mohammedan work ; but such portions of
arches as remained in the lower part, though built, like the rest
of the edifice, of these rude stones, were rather of the semicir
cular than pointed kind, though not strictly either. Below this
castle was an extensive space, stretching westward from the foot
of the hills, spread over with heaps of ruins, among which no one
perfect edifice remained. These were all built of unhewn stones,
and were humble private dwellings, to which no fixed date could
be assigned..
After going over these heaps, we came to a bend of the river
Sasoon, which flowed full and rapidly from the eastward in a
deep bed, so thickly bordered with wild shrubs, trees, and tall
rushes, of twenty feet high, that though we heard the loud noise
of the current, we could not through these obstacles distinguish
its stream.
A few paces afterwards, we made a short turn round to the
eastward, and came into a pass of about a furlong wide, called
Teng-e-Chikoon. The highest part of the perpendicular cliffs on
each side was nearly three hundred feet, and the southern one
was directly at the back of the castle we had seen, which was
no doubt constructed expressly to guard this pass. This led into
a small round valley to the eastward of it, through which the
river Sasoon flowed down, between banks covered with rushes.
On going through this pass, on the southern side of the
stream, we came first to a large tablet in the cliff, the sculpture