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0393 The Pulse of Asia : vol.1
アジアの鼓動 : vol.1
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 / 393 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000233
引用形式選択: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

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CHAPTER XVI

THE ANCIENT CLIMATE OF IRAN

In order to appreciate fully the great historic significance
of the changes of climate of which we have found so abun-
dant evidence in Chinese Turkestan, we must now endeavor
to ascertain over how wide an area the changes have ex-
tended. Two regions, Iran and the Caspian basin, which I
studied in 1903–04 as a member of the Pumpelly Expedition,
shed much light on the subject, because, being arid and con-
taining lakes without outlets, changes of climate produce
effects more marked than those produced in moister regions
where the lakes all have outlets. Iran is a convenient term
for the great region of basins and mountains covering Persia,
Afghanistan, and Baluchistan. In the first volume of "Ex-
plorations in Turkestan," I have described the extremely
arid condition of Iran to-day, and have set forth various rea-
sons for believing that climatic conditions have not always
been the same. Accordingly, I shall here consider merely
a few of the chief lines of evidence, in order to show how
closely the phenomena of Iran agree with those of the Lop
and Turfan basins from one thousand to two thousand
miles farther east.

Observant travelers in the more arid parts of Iran have
almost without exception been much impressed with the
unmistakable evidences that a change of some sort has
overwhelmed the country. Ruins are incredibly numerous.
Mighty cities of the dead crowd such places as Seyistan, the