'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎263] (372/496)

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said to have enjoyed the amusement of the chase, and the society of the
beautiful Shirin. To the east of the enclosure a substantial aqueduct
conducted the waters of the Holwan from near their source to the royal
park. It is not improbable, indeed, that the area of the enclosure then
contained a profusion of luxuriant trees, similar to the venerated shikar-
gahs of the late Amirs of Scinde on the banks of the Indus, requiring a
lavish supply of water, not only for their own existence on so arid a soil
as that in the vicinity of the Kasr, but to maintain alive the numerous
animals that were imprisoned beneath their shade, and were destined for
the sport of the royal hunter. The remains of this aqueduct, built on
a wall of solid masonry, can now be traced for many miles, and the place,
though not affording many objects of interest to the antiquary, yields
some amusement to the traveller from the many stories of love and the
chase connected with it, which have been founded on the romantic
attachment that the Sassanian monarch entertained for his Christian
Queen, and on her partiality for the enamoured Firhad of Persian
romance. A similar ruin, termed Haoush Kerek, is situate about six and
a half miles west of Kasri-Shirin. Mr. Rich has fully described it in his
Kurdistan and Nineveh, Yol. II., page 270.
August 27th. — In the saddle at 2*25 A. M., resuming our march in a
very serpentine direction to the N. E. At 3*30, touched upon the remains
of the aqueduct leading to Kasri-Shirin. The duct or canal was about
a foot broad : many of the stones that composed it are still scattered
around. The wall that supported it is a massive structure, and is still in
some places four or five feet above the level of the country.* Our course,
after leaving the aqueduct, turned more to the S. E., at no great distance
from it, and led us again to the bank of the Holwan, at 3 # 45. From this
time until 4*35, altering our direction over disordered heaps and barren
mounds between east and E. S. E., when we passed a “ tappeF called by
wards converted into Shirin, ‘ sweet,’ or agreeable. The Roman accounts how
ever say that she was a public dancer. Khusru Parviz was killed by his son, A.
D. 627.
. “ The monarehs of Medea and Persia appear to have partaken of the nomade ha
bits of their subjects from a remote antiquity to the present time. Their annual
migrations according to the seasons were conducted with a pomp and magnificence
unknown in Europe ; and their parks and pleasure-houses in all parts of the Em
pire were on such a large scale, as not only to serve for the confinement of every
species of game, but contained such a space within their walls as to admit of their
armies being reviewed.”—See Heeren, Yol. I., Chap. II., page 402.
* R was prolonged beyond Kasri-Shirin, as far as Haoush Kerek—at least we
are informed so.