Some Routes in Southern Iran

THE Kingdom of Iran has acquired a new interest in the course of the last year as a corridor to South Russia from Britain or America via the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. The nearest point on the Indian Ocean to the Caspian Sea is 800 miles, and Chahbar, the only first-rate natural harbour on the whole of the Persian coast, is 900 miles away. The Persian Gulf comes closer, its nearest point lying 460 miles in a straight line from the shores of the Caspian. The land bridge to be traversed is a long one therefore, and physical obstacles, climatic harshness, and political insecurity have often combined to make it a difficult crossing. Wayfarers down the ages have tried a variety of routes and dwellers in Iran have sought still others on journeys from their inland cities in search of trade. Some rather easy routes exist between the cities along the grain of the country from north-west to southeast, but to get out either north-east or south-west there is no easy way, no alternative detour, and hardships have to be faced. Southern Iran can provide plenty of them. The pattern of the country explains the need for inland routes and some of the difficulties in providing them. The coast of south and south-western Iran forms an obtuse angle which bends from east-west to north-west-south-east a little west of Jask. It is washed by the Indian Ocean to Jask and by the waters of the Persian Gulf for nearly 600 miles beyond. The frontier then skirts the plains of 'Iraq for nearly 400 miles. Inside, plains and foothills form an outer zone where grilling summers are followed by temperate muddy winters. A mountain zone comes next. In the south the mountains are seldom as much as 7000 feet high, and although rough and stony, they can be crossed at selected cols of no more than 5000 feet. The mountain belt behind the shores of the Gulf has an open texture. Great whaleback limestone mountains rise one after another en echelon up to heights of 12,000 feet from a plain over which they are dotted so sparingly that the individuals do not jostle one another but have ample spaces around them to allow for easy roundabout passage. Farther north where the Gulf gives way to Mesopotamia the

Geography · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts