'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎83r] (170/820)

DARREH (No. 1)—
A halting-place in Northern Khorasan, about 40 miles west of Bujnurd,
on the road to Astarabad via Nardin.— (Thomson.)
DARREH (No. 2)—
A village of 100 houses between Nardin and Jajarm, about 8 miles from
the latter. It is infested with poisonous bugs. South of Darreh is the
Sihkunj mountain, to the north is the Sangaji mountain. The hamlet
Kalateh Khwaja Sangavar lies close to the village.— (Schindler.)
DARREH BIT— Lat. 33° 48' 26"; Long. 56° 57' ih"—(Lentz.)
The first stage from Tabas on the road to Tun in Khorasan. There is a
serai here, and some supplies are obtainable. It lies on a river of the same
name.— (MacGregor.)
DARREH GAZ— Lat. between 36° 30' 0" and 37° 40' 0" ; Long, between
58° 30' 0" and 60° 20' 0".
One of the northern districts of Khorasan. The name is said to be derived
from Dara or Darius, who is said to have founded the place. The great
Nadir Shah was born in this district, and the house in which he was brought
up still exists, it is said, in the town of Muhammadabad, the head-quarters
of the district. This district, comprising a single, fertile valley and the
mountains enclosing it, is the only Persian possession on the northern
watershed of the Elburz, east of Astarabad, save a few small villages in
the Kalat Atak. It has been maintained with very varying fortunes
against the constant attacks of a powerful enemy, not by the weak,
unsympathetic, and dilatory efforts of Government, but solely through the
tenacious resistance of the brave and hardy tribesmen, who have clung to
their fertile lands through every adversity, returning again and again with
unconquerable persistence to their devastated homes and ruined fields
and vineyards.
Boundaries .—The boundaries are fairly well defined. The small stream
rising in the Maidan-i-Khuni plateau, on the direct route from Meshed and
Kuchan to Darreh Gaz, known as the Rud-i-Qibqan, and lower down as the
Ab-i-Vard or Yart, may be held to mark the boundary line. There are
no villages on the lower course of this stream, but its water, when it
reaches the plain, is diverted to some of the Darreh Gaz Atak villages. From
the Maidan-i-Khuni the southern and wester nboundary line of Darreh Gah
runs along the main chain of the northern section of the Elburz, which
divides it from Kuchan, and which is called the Allahu Akbar range,
running from Hazar Masjid. It then crosses the Darreh Gaz stream above
Duringar, and strikes north to the crest of the Atak chain, known there
as the Kuh-i-Asalm (or Asalmeh). The northern boundary crosses over
to the northernmost summit of the Asalm range, passing along its ridge
in a south-easterly direction, and then skirting round to the north of the
village of Kalateh Chinar, it runs to the point where the ZIrkuh and
Kizil Dagh mountains join. Extending thence south-eastward along the
summits of the Zir Kuh range, until it issues into the valley of the Baba
Durmaz stream. It then takes a northerly direction and reaches the oasis
at the road from Gavars to Lutfabad, leaving the fortress of Baba Durmaz
to the east. Thence it descends to the border of Kalat-i-Nadiri. The tract