'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎109] (144/714)

FROM ASIIKABAD TO KUCHAN
309
once afterwards partook of a Persian dinner, and thought the fare
though excessive in quantity, better than in any of the other
Oriental countries whose native styles I have tested.
While at Kuchan I rode out to inspect the town and its environs.
I was informed that it now contains 12,000 inhabitants, but cannot
Town of help regarding this as an exaggerated estimate. The
Kuchan wa lls ; of which I made the tour and which, along with
the ditch, were constructed by the father and grandfather of the
present Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. , have never been repaired since their bombardment
by the siege train of Abbas Mirza, and have been still further re
duced by frequent shocks of earthquake since, notably one in 1872.
Indeed, MacGregor in 1875 said the town was such a mass of ruins
that he felt absolved from giving any description of it. The old
ramparts are now in many places no more than shapeless heaps of
mud. Outside the town are a large number of brick-kilns, and
several ice-houses with lofty mud cones, built in beehive fashion
over a pit in which the ice is stored. I was also taken to an ex
tensive garden or orchard belonging to the Khan, the interior of
which, ten or twelve acres in extent, was planted with vines, and
avenues of apple, pear, apricot, pomegranate, mulberry , peach, plum,
and quince. In the centre was a raised platform of beaten clay
about a foot high, on which the Shah's pavilion was pitched when
he stopped here on his second journey to Meshed in 1883, and
where the Khan sometimes camps out when there is danger of
earthquakes. Outside the town are also pointed out an elevated
plateau known as Takht-i-Shah (i.e. Throne of the King), where
Fath Ali Shah's tents were pitched in his expedition against Kuchan:
and a hill called Nadir Tepe, at a distance of a mile and a half
from the walls, where Nadir Shah met his fate in June 1747.
The only building in Kuchan, in addition to the palace, that
lifts its head above the horizontal level of the dusty roofs or is of
the least importance, is a mosque with a dome and two
stunted minarets, one of these having a wooden gallery
at the top from which is given the summons to prayer. As the
Shiah Mahometans do not allow unbelievers to enter even the gate
ways of their mosques, combining a peculiar fanaticism in this
respect with excess of laxity in others, neither here nor elsewhere
was I able to do more than gaze through the Arabic archway into
the inner court.
I am sorry that it was not till later that I read Fraser's account
Buildings
!