"تقرير عسكري عن بلاد فارس - المجلد I ١٩٣٠" [و‎‎١‎٧] (١٥٤/٣٨)

CHAPTER II.
GEOGRAPHIC AND CLIMATE,
(A) Khurasan.
Khurasan is the largest province of Persia. The total
area is about 150,000 to 200,000 square miles. It is essen-
tially mountainous, but fertile and fairly welLwatered in
the north. Its northern boundary is the Russian frontier
east of the Caspian. To the east it marches with Afghan^
istan and Seisian down to Kuh-i-Malik Siah; thence to
Nasratahad Sipi, Deh Salm, Basiram/ Garmab, -Shaud Ali
Reza, Naihand, between Chehil Pai and Darband to Pusht-i»
Badam, thence northwards to near Abbasabad and follows
roughly the 06 th 'degree of longitude to-the Atrek River,
(1) Mountains.
The mountain system of Khurasan which forms a link
between the Elburz and the Paropamisus was in former
days of great military value to Persia as it formed a con
siderable obstacle . to the \ marauding hordes of nomads of
Russian Turkistan. It is made up of several parallel fridges
which flank the wide open valleys of Bujnurd, iRuchan and
Meshed. sThe northern portion resolves )itself into two
more or less parallel ranges, the most northerly of which,
although by far the lower, is.of the more importance.
This is the vertically scarped frontier barrier range which
runs in an almost uribroken'line from Gifan in the west up
to Sarakhs in the east. In most sections this range forms
the actual frontier and its cliffs, though seldom more than
500 feet high, are unschleable and hence have saved Persia
in the past from being overrun from Trans-Caspia by any
thing more than small raiding parties of Turkomans.
In the Gifan-Kaltachinar sector, this range, which is
known as the Gulul Dagh, ia high and rough but traversed
by a number of smugglers’ bridle tracks, in addition to
the metalled motor road from Askhabad to Kuchan vid
Bajgiran and a camel track (which is passable for wheels)
from Geok Teppe via Rohat-di-Khairabad to Shirvan.
West of Kaltachinar the frontier barrier range, in this
sector known as the Kizil Dagh and Zarin iKuh, becomes