'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎289] (330/714)

FROM MESHED TO TEHERAN 289
of 30 000 iommis if he would continue him in the government.
M \^ Un f. e P 00 ^ 4 ® 11 the mtme y and carried off the chief to
Meshed the local Governor taking advantage of his absence to
capture the fort. Like most other places in the neighbourhood it
is now abandoned and is rapidly falling to pieces.
Throughout this day, and, indeed, in all parts of my journey I
passed several of those great tumuli, or barrows, which have so
Tumuli P uzzled traveller in North Persia. They consist of
immense circular or oval mounds, from fifty to a hundred
feet m height, supporting, as a rule, no traces of buildings, but
composed of solid masses of clay, worn smooth by the long passage
of time. Local tradition, of course, assigns them to Jamshid
which is tantamount to a confession of utter ignorance as to their
origin. By some they have been regarded as the sites of fire-
temples, raised in the old days of Zoroastrian worship. I entertain
very little doubt that they were mostly, if not all, raised as cita-
e s or forts of defence for villages, long since perished, below. They
are invariably to be found upon the plains where Nature has
provided no ready means of defence, and where artifice was con
sequently required to create them. Many still exhibit upon their
summits the crumbling, shapeless walls of the mud citadels by
which they were once crowned. Good illustrations of this stage
of existence are visible at Bidesht, near Shahrud, and at Jaiarm
between Bujnurd and Shahrud. Where the tumuli (or Tturaans
as they are called) are smooth and bare, the superstructure has
entirely perished. A long line of these mounds is still traceable
along the valley of the Gurgan, starting from Gumesh Tepe (or
Si ver Hill) an obviously artificial erection—on the shores of the
aspian, and forming part of a triple line of earth ramparts,,
attributed to Alexander the Great, which extends as far as Bujnurd.
The regularity of their occurrence in some places, as, for instance
between Kazvin and Teheran, has led to the plausible conjecture
that they may also have been used as signal-stations, or beacons,
rom one camp to another. But, in either case, their purpose was
military. There seems to be no ground for regarding any of them
as sepulchral barrows.
The road from Ghushah hay over a desolate and uncultivated
plain, and then gradually mounted, until, having traversed an easy
pass m the hills, it suddenly dropped down upon a gloomy hollow,
where stood the caravanserai A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers). and posthouse of Ahuan. The existing
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