Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

I CONFIGURATION AND CLIMATE 15
The Mountains of the Iranian Plateau.— Persia is not,
as is sometimes stated, merely a vast plain surrounded by-
exterior mountain chains. On the contrary, practically
in every part there are detached parallel ranges with
valleys averaging twenty miles in width, this formation
being repeated with a monotony which is exasperating
to the traveller whose journey lies at right angles to their
trend. Limestone is the prevailing rock material from
the Elburz in the north to the Baluchistan ranges in
the south : but gypsum, saliferous beds, conglomerate
sand and alluvial shingle are frequently found. The
central masses of the hills are occasionally formed of red
sandstone and arenaceous shales : limestone is, however,
much more frequent. As the gypsum and saliferous
deposits are soluble, and are thus affected by the melting
snows, these substances have been carried down into the
plains and have thereby produced the dreary areas covered
with salt
crystals, of which there is a good example near
Nishapur.
In Persia the gigantic gravel slopes are a striking
feature. That which extends from the Elburz is enormous,
having a width of some sixteen miles. Its depth, too, is
great. When experiments were made at Teheran, which
is built on the slope, with a view to obtaining water by
means of artesian wells, the boring at 500 feet was still
on the gravel, and so the attempt was abandoned. As
Teheran is some ten miles from the range, what must
be the depth of the gravel at the base ?
The Northern Ranges, —Of the great frontier ranges,
those to the north start from the Pamirs, the most
elevated valleys in Asia, which in Persian phraseology are
well termed Bam-i-Dunia, or *' The Roof of the World."
Thence, under the names, Hindu Kush, Kuh-i-Baba, and
under other terms, they run south of west, forming a great
natural rampart across the entire length of Afghanistan
until, north of Herat, they subside into rolling downs.
It is of interest to note that the Greeks realized the
"
This
magnitude of this range ; for Arrian writes :
range of mountains stretches out so far that they say
even that Mount Taurus, which forms the boundary of