'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎51v] (107/610)

90
t The rivers are mentioned below pages 97-99.
Stiver system.
Elburz
Watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. .
I
Watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. cf
western hills
of Plateau.
The Western hill system in Kharagan and to a lesser degree
in Khamseh presents the ordinary features of the Persian
plateau. The hills are barren and stony, run from North
West to South East and, in contrast to the Elburz, diminish in
height to the South East.
The Elburz give rise to countless perennial streams; those
draining South on to the plateau, though vitally important for
cultivation, are small owing to the scantier rainfall on the
Southern slopes, and are not of note geographically. The only
streams bringing down any volume of water through the summer
are the Hablehrud, Jajarud and Karaj. In winter their overflow
reaches the ‘ Kavir ’ or the Qum lake, but in summer they are
absorbed in irrigating the plains at the foot of the hills.
The majority of Elburz streams flow North down narrow
tortuous ravines to the Caspian, where they have formed fertile
deltas, of which the plains of Mazandaran and Gilan are the
largest. The longest! river is the rlaraz with a course of 120
miles.
These hills being lower do not give source to any considerable
streams, and in summer the watercourses hold little water or
become dry. The principal of them is the Kharrud formed by
the junction of the stream from Abhar (on the Kazvin-Zinjan
Road) with the stream from Ab-i-garm (on the Kazvln-Hama-
dan Road), which flows in a South Easterly direction passing
20 miles South of Kazvin.
Intermediate
plains.
The Kizil Uzun, which pierces these hills and after them the
Elburz, rises in the mountains of Kurdistan and drains an
area of 25,000 to 30,000 square miles. It follows a tortuous
course of nearly 500 miles from its sources to the sea, but the
distance in a straight line is only 210 miles.
Near Mlaneh it receives the river Karangu, fed from the
snows of Sahand, but its affluents which rise in this area are
few and small until it reaches the Elburz at Manjil.
The effect of the systems of the Elburz river gorges and
the Kizil Uzun in regulating and limiting the lines of approach
from North East and North, will be described in the Strategical
Notes after the description of the Elburz-Caspian and Persian
plateau sections of this area.
In the centre of this area lie the plains of Zinjan (average
elevation 5,000'), Abhar 5,000', Kazvin (average elevation