'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎294] (335/714)

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PERSIA
the claimants to the distinction of being the veritable Pylee Caspise
are four in number. There is a pass called Teng-i-Shemshirbur,
(or the Pass of the Sword Cut—the tradition being that it was hewn
in the rock by one slash of Ali's scimetar), on the upper road from
the capital to Shahrud, and just under the shadow of the kShalikuli,
the highest peak of the Elburz, between Astrabad and Shahrud.
This pass is 150 yards long and only 18 feet wide, between
two perpendicular walls of limestone. Napier says, ' there can be
little doubt that this is the Caspian Gates.' On the other hand,
there can be no doubt that Napier is wrong. For. not only da
neither the features nor length correspond in any particular, but
the Sword Cut Pass is about 200 miles too far to the east. Burnes 1
selected as his candidate the Gaduk Pass in the Elburz, north of
Firuzkuh, through which runs the ordinary road to Mazanderan.
Among the northern passes leading from Irak Ajemi into the
Caspian provinces, those of Savvachi, near Firuzkuh, and the Teng-ser-
enza, just beyond that place, have also been mentioned, both of them
being precipitous rocky detiles of a character that might be supposed
to justify the name of gates. 2 Morier, however, who visited them,
and was at first impressed by the verisimilitude of their features,
soon recognised that, in addition to other respects, they failed in
the essential element of distance, being ninety miles east of Teheran,,
and, consequently, not within a day's march even for Alexander.
Accordingly, he suggested, and Fraser, Ferrier, and Eastwick have
supported with much wealth of argument, the choice of the pass to
which my journey has now brought me, between the plains of Khar
and Veramin.
This pass is known as the Sirdara, or Ser Dereh, or Sardari r
probably Ser-i-dareh (i.e. Head of the Valley). It is entered by a
The Sir- narrow passage or gateway on the south-east, and winds
dara Pass tortuously through a projecting spur of the Elburz range,,
that here runs forward in a south-westerly direction into the great
central desert. My notes represent it as being nearly six miles in
length. 3 A salt stream flows down the valley bottom, and encrusts
its banks with a white efflorescence. At times the pass opens into
a little plain, and then again contracts. In the centre is an old
1 Travels into Bokhara, vol. iii. p. 111. 2 Moner's Second Journey, p. 365.
3 The extent to which miscalculation of distance is possible when the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
has ridden on horseback, and has perhaps composed his description from memory
afterwards, may be judged from the varying estimates of the length of this pass.
Ferrier says miles, Eastwick 4, and O'Donovan 12.