Armenians, with some of the Cappadocians, Cilicians, and
Pisidians.1 It also comprised the gently sloping hills, the
plains, and extensive valleys of Media and Armenia; two
kingdoms lying between the different branches of the
Taurus.2
In this account the name is applied to the mountain ridges
which bound the whole region; but, from the following description,
it is evident that the southern branches constitute
what was, properly, called the Taurus, and those to the north
the Anti-Taurus. Beyond the Euphrates, says Strabo, the
great mountain Anti-Taurus extends, from the borders of
Commagene and Melitene, towards the north, inclosing
Sophene in a valley between it and Taurus Proper: it separates
into several branches, and to the north of the Niphates3
is the range called Paryadres, with the mountains of the
Moschi. Some of the branches extend into Armenia,4 and
as far as Iberia and Albania; and, towards the east, others
proceed along the Caspian Sea as far as Media and Atropatia.
Towards the south, the Taurus divides Sophene and part of
Armenia from Mesopotamia:5 this part of the chain is
by some called the Gordisei, and to it belongs Mount
Masius, which has, on the south, the cities of Nisibis and
Tigranocerta. Afterwards the mountains become more
elevated, and join the Zagros, which divides Media from
Babylonia.
Southward of the point where the Assyrian mountains
join the Zagros, the latter, under the name of the Shahu,
or Mountains of the Cosssei, continues to run in the previous
direction of S.S.E. into Persian Kurdistan, passing a little
way westward of Kirman-shah. The range is chiefly composed
of limestone and sandstone, with clay, slate, dialidge,
quartz, and conglomerate, and occasionally granite. This
elevated chain has a brown, bleak, and irregularly serrated
as it runs westward, presenting its right flank to the north, and the left to the
south.—Lih. V., cap. xxvii.
1 Strabo, XI., p. 491. 2 Ibid., p. 522.
3 Ibid., p. 521 * Ibid., p. 521.
5 Ibid., p. 522.
outline, with steep sides,1 which are in some places scarped
into precipitous ravines by the action of the streams, whilst
in others nature has perfected her work, by the formation of
deep, winding, and well watered valleys.
Opposite Kirman-shah the chain bends more eastward,
and, under the denomination of the Laristan mountains, it
runs towards Shuster, where it takes the name of its dominant
tribe, the Bakhtiyari, which name it preserves as far as Bei-
bahan. Eastward of this place it is called the Hetzerdara,
or Thousand Mountains ; it incloses the basin of Shiraz, and
constitutes those ranges of naked, barren hills, which diversify
the plain of Merdasht, one portion being the royal mountain
of Persepolis.2 A little way southward of the capital of Fars
the chain curves to the S.E., and runs parallel to the coast
at a distance of about 20 miles; the breadth of the chain
being rather greater than that distance, and having an elevation
of about 5000 feet as it approaches Cape Jask. Eastward
of the latter point it skirts the shores of Mekran, rather
decreasing in height until, near the banks of the Indus, it is
lost in the Hala mountains. Where it has been examined,
the formation is sandstone, limestone, gypsum, clays, and
marls.3 The brown, bare, and furrowed appearance belonging
to the first of these rocks, seems to be the prevailing
character of this part of the chain; the sides and crests of
which are generally deprived of vegetation; but the valleys,
where they happen to be irrigated, produce the plantain, date,
and other fruits, as well as grain.
The other chain skirts the northern side of Iran. The
first part of it (the Masula mountains) quits the plateau of
Ararat towards the eastern side of Karabagh, taking a
southerly direction from the banks of the Aras, along the
western side of the plains of Talish. Thence it inclines eastward
of south, skirting the western side of Ghilan as far as
the pass of Rudbar, in three parallel ridges, with occasionally
an elevation of 6000 or 7000 feet above the plain. From
1 MS. Journal of Mr. A. A. Staunton’s Journey, returning from the Expe-
dition.
2 Ainsworth’s Assyria and Babylonia, p. 233. Ibid., p. 226.