The Approximate Height Of The Pass Above The Sea Is Estimated At 8000 Feet.

We have thus for the descent the greater part of .

. . . 2 3. "Clumps of date-palms growing near the village showed that I had now reached a totally different climate." (Smith's Report.) And Mr. Abbott says of the same region: "Partly wooded ... and with thickets of reeds abounding with francolin and Jirufti partridge.... The lands yield grain, millet, pulse, French- and horse-beans, rice, cotton, henna, Palma Christi, and dates, and in part are of great fertility.... Rainy season from January to March, after which a luxuriant crop of grass." Across this plain (districts of Jiruft and Rudbar), the height of which above the sea, is something under 2000 feet . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4. 6-1/2 hours, "nearly the whole way over a most difficult mountain-pass," called the Pass of Nevergun . . . 1 5. Two long marches over a plain, part of which is described as "continuous cultivation for some 16 miles," and the rest as a "most uninteresting plain" . . . . . 2 - Total as before . . . . 17

In the previous edition of this work I was inclined to identify Marco's route absolutely with this Itinerary. But a communication from Major St. John, who surveyed the section from Kerman towards Deh Bakri in 1872, shows that this first section does not answer well to the description. The road is not all plain, for it crosses a mountain pass, though not a formidable one. Neither is it through a thriving, populous tract, for, with the exception of two large villages, Major St. John found the whole road to Deh Bakri from Kerman as desert and dreary as any in Persia. On the other hand, the more direct route to the south, which is that always used except in seasons of extraordinary severity (such as that of Major Smith's journey, when this route was impassable from snow), answers better, as described to Major St. John by muleteers, to Polo's account. The first six days are occupied by a gentle ascent through the districts of Bardesir and Kairat-ul-Arab, which are the best-watered and most fertile uplands of Kerman. From the crest of the pass reached in those six marches (which is probably more than 10,000 feet above the sea, for it was closed by snow on 1st May, 1872), an easy descent of two days leads to the Garmsir. This is traversed in four days, and then a very difficult pass is crossed to reach the plains bordering on the sea. The cold of this route is much greater than that of the Deh Bakri route. Hence the correspondence with Polo's description, as far as the descent to the Garmsir, or Reobarles, seems decidedly better by this route. It is admitted to be quite possible that on reaching this plain the two routes coalesced. We shall assume this provisionally, till some traveller gives us a detailed account of the Bardesir route. Meantime all the remaining particulars answer well.

[General Houtum-Schindler (l.c. pp. 493-495), speaking of the Itinerary from Kerman to Hormuz and back, says: "Only two of the many routes between Kerman and Bender 'Abbas coincide more or less with Marco Polo's description. These two routes are the one over the Deh Bekri Pass [see above, Colonel Smith], and the one via Sardu. The latter is the one, I think, taken by Marco Polo. The more direct roads to the west are for the greater part through mountainous country, and have not twelve stages in plains which we find enumerated in Marco Polo's Itinerary. The road via Baft, Urzu, and the Zendan Pass, for instance, has only four stages in plains; the road, via Rahbur, Rudbar and the Nevergun Pass only six; and the road via Sirjan also only six."

Marches. The Sardu route, which seems to me to be the one followed by Marco Polo, has five stages through fertile and populous plains to Sarvizan . . . . . 5 One day's march ascends to the top of the Sarvizan Pass 1 Two days' descent to Rahjird, a village close to the ruins of old Jiruft, now called Shehr-i-Daqianus . . 2 Six days' march over the "vast plain" of Jiruft and Rudbar to Fariab, joining the Deh Bekri route at Kerimabad, one stage south of the Shehr-i-Daqianus . . . . 6 One day's march through the Nevergun Pass to Shamil, descending . . . . . . . . . 1 Two days' march through the plain to Bender 'Abbas or Hormuz . . . . . . . . . . 2 - In all . . . . . . 17

The Sardu road enters the Jiruft plain at the ruins of the old city, the Deh Bekri route does so at some distance to the eastward. The first six stages performed by Marco Polo in seven days go through fertile plains and past numerous villages. Regarding the cold, "which you can scarcely abide," Marco Polo does not speak of it as existing on the mountains only; he says, "From the city of Kerman to this descent the cold in winter is very great," that is, from Kerman to near Jiruft. The winter at Kerman itself is fairly severe; from the town the ground gradually but steadily rises, the absolute altitudes of the passes crossing the mountains to the south varying from 8000 to 11,000 feet. These passes are up to the month of March always very cold; in one it froze slightly in the beginning of June. The Sardu Pass lies lower than the others. The name is Sardu, not Sardu from sard, "cold." Major Sykes (Persia, ch. xxiii.) comes to the same conclusion: "In 1895, and again in 1900, I made a tour partly with the object of solving this problem, and of giving a geographical existence to Sardu, which appropriately means the 'Cold Country.' I found that there was a route which exactly fitted Marco's conditions, as at Sarbizan the Sardu plateau terminates in a high pass of 9200 feet, from which there is a most abrupt descent to the plain of Jiruft, Komadin being about 35 miles, or two days' journey from the top of the pass.

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