National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

over a succession of steep spurs to the pass of Gudār-i-Sang-i-ishk, where the water-
shed on the Lālehzār range was crossed at an elevation of 10,150 feet, and then
down a valley fairly watered and much frequented during the summer months
by nomadic graziers, to the large village of Rābur (7,800 feet).

With its fine orchards producing abundance of fruit and an extensive area
of cultivation irrigated by streams from the mountains, Rābur is by far the most
attractive place and the only one of any importance passed by us on this journey
through Kermān. That the oasis has existed since early times can be safely
assumed. But the Tal-i-Khushkeh, the only mound I could learn of, situated
near the south-western edge of the agglomerate of hamlets collectively known
as Rābur, showed no evidence on the surface of the site having been occupied
before the historic period. It measures about 150 yards from north-west to
south-east, with a maximum width of some 60 yards, and rises to 15 feet where
highest. Its size has evidently been much reduced by digging for manuring
earth. What potsherds were picked up below the banks thus exposed and on
surrounding fields were of coarse plain ware, with the exception of a couple of
glazed fragments and a flat-ribbed piece, which may be pre-Muhammadan.

From a day's welcome halt at pleasant Rābur, where fresh donkey transport
had been readily obtained, we turned to the south-east in order to gain the
plateau of Isfandaqeh. Our march on November 16th led first down the stream
of Rābur and then over a scrub-covered alluvial plateau. From there a distant
view was gained of the numerous hamlets nestling at the foot of the mountains
and girding the main oasis of Rābur on the north and north-west. They
obviously owe their existence to the increased moisture received by the high
range behind and the drainage descending from it. Some little cultivation was
found again at Maidān (6,250 feet), in the valley of one of these tributaries of
the Rābur river. The semi-nomadic occupants of the hamlet, belonging to the
Sulaimānī tribe, were preparing to move down to their winter grazing in Jīruft.
Small intermittent patches of cultivation, met on the next day's march for some
8 miles down by the same stream, were already deserted. Then the track
led away from the stream, across utterly barren low ridges and waterless
ravines, to the small open plain of Padamābād (5,550 feet) with some fields
and an old orchard. The few dwellings at the site were abandoned and in
ruins.²

A long and tiring march on November 18th took us on its first half through