National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Overland to India : vol.1 |
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114 OVERLAND TO INDIA CHAP.
valley it was constructed in the ordinary way, and when
the valley was filled by a great flood after continuous rain
five miles of road were washed away. It was repaired and 0
made firm with cement. The intention was that this road,
available for motors, should form a continuation of the
railway from Tiflis to Julia, which is now finished as far as
Nakichevan. A bridge eighty-eight yards long was to be
built over the Araxes a mile and a third below the present
J ulfa, a double town which, therefore, will in the near future
change its position, and probably at some time become of
great importance, not least from a strategic point of view.
Twenty motors had already been ordered from Russia, r
both for passengers and baggage, and when all is ready it
will be possible to travel from Julfa to Tabriz in five hours
instead of two days as at present.
It was quite evident that in this undertaking Russia
had plans for a railway in prospect ; for all the blastings, !'
cuttings, embankments, and gradients were planned for a
railway line, and little more was needed than to lay the r
rails upon the track. This railway will give the death-
blow to the old caravan route from Trebizond, and, thanks
to the prohibitive tariff at Batum, Russia will then render
impossible any attempt at competition, and will control all ,,
the North Persian trade.
The Persian Julfa is an insignificant and bare town of
a few houses, among which the Perso-Belgian customs-
house, with its two storeys, balcony, and pillars, rises like
a palace among wretched cabins. Still it has a hakim or 3
governor, a post office, and an English telegraph office 1
managed by a German, and lastly a motor garage. The
waggon with my luggage was betimes on the way, but it
was past eight o'clock when I commenced my first drive
on Persian soil in a small light carriage, drawn by four
horses and driven by a Tatar coachman. At first the
country is level as a floor of parquetry, for the soil con-
sists of close alluvial mud from the floods of the Araxes,
and is so hard that the wheels make no impression on it.
Persian carriage roads are distinguishable only by ruts,
but the Russian road we soon cross has an imposing
appearance, with its deep channels at the sides.
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