'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎61v] (127/610)

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2. Further Weat sandiiiils give place to turf and bushes border
ing the beach, which in many places, usually where the hills
approach the coast, is narrower, steeper and very soft.
3. West of Pul-i-rud, bordering the plain of Gilan, the
characteristics of 1 reappear.
The hardness or softness of the beach surface seem to depend
on the width and slope, the wider and more level sections prob
ably being submerged during storms and beaten hard by the
surf.
In the soft sections animals sometimes sink knee deep,
crossing some of the brooks, but there are no quicksands.
The coast line stretches in a series of shallow indentations
without a break and is devoid of natural harbours. With the
exception of the Enzali lagoon, the “ Murdabs ” are shallow
marshes, and the mouths of the rivers are obstructed by
sandbars. The entrance to the artificial harbour of Enzali
requires constant dredging to keep it open.
Architecture. The towns are described by Lord Curzon as follows :—
“ Thatched or red tiled houses with roof of high pitch and
wide projecting eaves, the tiles being laid on reeds supported on
rafters, present a spectacle in singular contrast to the cubical
parallelograms of mud with which Persian urban architecture
has familiarized us.”
The houses in the lowlands (Dasht) are lofty with steep
roofs of thatch running up to a point; in the ‘ Miyanband ’ they
are usually 2 storeyed and roofed with wooden tiles. Along the
sea shore (Lab-i-Darya) in summer platforms under a roof of
thatch are constructed on poles 20' to 30' above the ground to
catch the breeze and be free from mosquitoes.
Strategical
notes on
Elburz Moun
tains and
Caspian
provinces.
Difficulty of
lines of
approach to
Persian
plateau.
These geographical features give rise to special military
conditions.
The first salient feature of these provinces is their isolation
from the rest of Persia behind the formidable barrier' of the
Elburz.
The Manjll-Rasht road is the 'easiest and natural line of
approach, the only one passable for wheeled traffic, and is well
known.
The trade routes to South-East and North-West of it, which
are enumerated in Chapter X paragraph (c) Land Routes,
are rough mule tracks of varying degrees of badness with few
exceptions rendered impassable by snow for 3 to 6 months in