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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