'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎487] (546/714)

INSTITUTIONS AND REFORMS
487
and a series of post-houses, superior in equipment to any of the
chajpar stations, at intervals of from fifteen to twenty miles. This
road, of which I have previously spoken in Chapter II., cost a sum
officially returned at 87,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. , or about 25,000^., but alleged
in reality to have mounted to more than double that total. It is
unmetalled, and would not provoke the encomiums of a European
engineer. The Teheran-Kum road, which was constructed in 1883,
is said, after the experience gained upon its predecessor, to have
cost much less, viz. road and six caravanserais upon it, 35,000
tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. ; 1 but, having ridden over part of it, I can aver that the
road-making must have been of the most meagre description ; for
nothing appeared to have been done beyond the marking out of
a straight track, with a ditch on either side, and the removal of
the loose stones encumbering the space thus enclosed. To these
two roads must be added that from Baj Girha, on the Russian
frontier near Ashkabad, via Kuchan to Meshed, which I have else
where described at length, and which, having now attained com
pletion, raises to the dignified total of three the carriageable
highways of Persia.
To these must be added a limited number of roads in the
suburbs of Teheran, mostly conducting to favourite country resi-
Minor dences oi the Shah, and accordingly levelled so as to
admit of the equipages that transport the royal harem.
Of these there are three, affording the solitary possible drives to
the residents in the capital. The straight and ugly road, lined
with an avenue of trees, that leads to Doshan Tepe, was made
after the Shah's first visit to Europe, in 1874, and was opened
with great ceremonial and with public rejoicing, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Mirza Husein Khan, receiving the proud title of
Sipah Salar, or Commander-in-Chief, in honour of the occasion.
In the succeeding year, with a similar flourish of trumpets, was
opened the scarcely longer road that conducts from the Southern
Gate to the shrine and village of Shah Abdul Azim. The third
suburban road is that leading to Gulahek, which is monotonously
familiar to the members of the British Legation.
Among minor routes, to construct or repair which some effort
has at one time or another been made, must be mentioned the
roads from Resht to Pir-i-Bazaar, and from Tabriz to Julfa.
1 The caravanserais, five upon the road and one at Kum, are rented by the
Amin-es-Sultan for the sum of 600 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. or 170?. a year.