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

be abandoned in recent years. The ascent of the rugged coastal range proved so
steep and difficult from the start that I could scarcely feel surprised at two of the
local donkeys having clandestinely been taken away by their owners during the
night, and two more breaking down completely after only about 1½ miles had
been covered on the bare slope of calcareous rock up which the track led. I had
previously noticed scanty traces of an old road, and as the ascent continued we
soon passed walls built with large slabs of cut stone which had once carried a
winding, properly engineered road. These and other remains observed farther
on left no doubt that this route, difficult as it must always have been, had been
in regular use for the traffic which once was carried on between the emporium
of Sīrāf and the old trading centres of Īrān.

After gaining the height of the rocky spur the old route, still difficult but
less steep, was followed along its crest north-eastwards to a narrow plateau
known as Yahūd-kush ('the Jew's murder'). There two cisterns and the ruins
of several domed structures occupy the small available space, marking an old
halting-place for trade caravans. At the bottom of a confined little valley to the
north could be seen patches of date groves irrigated from a spring-fed streamlet
and visited by semi-nomadic herdsmen known here, as all along the coast, by the
designation of 'Balūch'. The brushwood brought down by them from the higher
hill-sides and shipped to Bahrein, partly in the form of charcoal, forms nowadays
practically the only article of export from this desolate coast.

Ascending the bare rocky ridge for another mile, we reached the foot of
precipitous cliffs known as Shasb-pēch. The name, meaning literally 'the six
screw turns or twists', is not inappropriately derived from the very steep wind-
ing path which clambers up the side of the cliffs between fissured masses of rock
(Fig. 80). The path is too difficult for any but local donkeys to follow and in
places would scarcely allow our mule-trunks to be got through. An ascent of
some 300 feet by this rock ladder brought us to almost vertical cliffs of lime-
stone which looked as if barring progress for any laden animal. Yet a track had
been carried up here, to a further height of some 400 feet, by means of walls
of very solid construction. They showed regular courses of masonry set in
mortar. The route was thus made practicable also for camels which, as our
Galehdār tufangchīs explained, could be brought here by means of a detour lead-
ing across a side spur lower down, thus avoiding the 'Six Twists'.

On gaining the top of the main spur we found its narrow crest occupied by the
ruins of a square sarai and some other smaller structures. They are known by the
name of Gachīno, from the gypsum cement (gach) used in the rough masonry.
They obviously date from the same period as the remains of Sīrāf, and their better
preservation may well be due to the force of earthquakes having made itself less