Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎202v] (407/1814)

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The modern Seistan may he said to comprise thiee main
depressions, which, according to the season of the year and the
Present extent of the spring floods, are converted alternately into
condition lakes, swamps, or dry land. The first of these depressions
consists of the twofold lagoon formed by the Harut Raid and the
Farrah End flowing from the north, and by the Helmund and the
Khash or Khushk End flowing from the south and east respec
tively. These two lakes or pools are connected by a thick reed-
bed called the Naizar, which, according to the amount of water
that they contain, is either a marsh or a cane-brake. In flood
time these two lakes, ordinarily distinct, unite their waters, and
the conjoint inundation pours over the Naizar into the second
great depression, known by the generic title of Hamun or
Expanse, which stretches southwards like a vast shallow trough
for many miles. TVhen the British Oommissioners were heie m
1872, the Hamun was quite dry, and they marched to and fro
across its bed. But in 1885-6, when some of the members of the
later Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission were proceeding this
way from Quetta to the confines of Herat, it was found to be an
immense lake, extending for miles, with the Kuh-i-Khwajah, a well-
known mountain and conspicuous landmark usually regarded as
its western limit, standing up like an island in the middle . 1 In
times of abnormal flood the Hamun will itself overflow ; and on
^ such occasions the water, draining southwards through the^ Sarshela
ravine, inundates the third of the great depressions to which I
This was said
alluded, and which is known as the^Zirreh Marshy
at the time of the Commission not to have occurred within living
memory, it being a far more common experience to find all the
river-beds exhausted than all the lake-beds full; and the Zirreh as
a rule presents the familiar appearance of a salt desert . 2 In 1885,
ham on $ The Basin of the Helmund,’ in the Proceedings of the It. G.S. (New Series),
vol. i. p. 191.
1 The Kuh-i-Khwajah, known also as Kuh-i-Rustam, is an isolated bluff com
posed of a crystalline black rock resembling basalt, and rising to a height of about
400 feet above the level of the Hamun, in which it constitutes a famous landmark
for many miles. It was a stronghold of the old Kaianian dynasty who ruled
Seistan, and is said to have been held for seven years by one of their number
against the troops of Nadir Shah. It is also a place of popular resort among the
Seistanis, for at No Ruz (March 21) a fair is held there, and the flattened summit
is used as a race-course. For further information, ride ‘ Visit to the Kuh-i-
Khwajah,’ by Major B. Lovett, in the Journal of the It.G.S., vol. xliv. p. 145 (1874).
2 When Sir C. MacGregor was exploring Beluchistan in 1877, he skirted the
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