Built upon the lowest spur of the Bashkurd mountains, commanding a gorge
through which the Rudbar river debouches on the plain of Hormuzdia." In
these new and interesting particulars it is pleasing to find such precise
corroboration both of Edrisi and of Ibn Batuta. The former, writing in the
12th century, says that Hormuz stood on the banks of a canal or creek from
the Gulf, by which vessels came up to the city. The latter specifies the
breadth of sea between Old and New Hormuz as three farsakhs. (Edrisi,
I. 424; I. B. II. 230.)
I now proceed to recapitulate the main features of Polo's Itinerary from
Kerman to Hormuz. We have: -
Marches
1. From Kerman across a plain to the top of a
mountain-pass, where extreme cold was
experienced . . . . . . . . 7
2. A descent, occupying . . . . . . . 2
3. A great plain, called Reobarles, in a much warmer
climate, abounding in francolin partridge, and in
dates and tropical fruit, with a ruined city of former
note, called Camadi, near the head of the plain,
which extends for . . . . . . . . 5
4. A second very bad pass, descending for 20 miles, say 1
5. A well-watered fruitful plain, which is crossed to
Hormuz, on the shores of the Gulf . . . . 2
-
Total 17
No European traveller, so far as I know, has described the most direct
road from Kerman to Hormuz, or rather to its nearest modern representative
Bander Abbasi, - I mean the road by Baft. But a line to the eastward of
this, and leading through the plain of Jiruft, was followed partially by
Mr. Abbott in 1850, and completely by Major R. M. Smith, R.E., in 1866.
The details of this route, except in one particular, correspond closely in
essentials with those given by our author, and form an excellent basis of
illustration for Polo's description.
Major Smith (accompanied at first by Colonel Goldsmid, who diverged to
Mekran) left Kerman on the 15th of January, and reached Bander Abbasi on
the 3rd of February, but, as three halts have to be deducted, his total
number of marches was exactly the same as Marco's, viz. 17. They divide as
follows: -
Marches
1. From Kerman to the caravanserai of Deh Bakri in the
pass so called. "The ground as I ascended became
covered with snow, and the weather bitterly cold"
(Report) . . . . . . . . . 6
2. Two miles over very deep snow brought him to the
top of the pass; he then descended 14 miles to his halt.
Two miles to the south of the crest he passed a second
caravanserai: "The two are evidently built so near one
another to afford shelter to travellers who may be
unable to cross the ridge during heavy snow-storms."
The next march continued the descent for 14 miles, and
then carried him 10 miles along the banks of the
Rudkhanah-i-Shor.
