You have got to the top of
the pass you find a great descent which occupies some two days to go down.
All along you find a variety and abundance of fruits; and in former days
there were plenty of inhabited places on the road, but now there are none;
and you meet with only a few people looking after their cattle at pasture.
From the city of Kerman to this descent the cold in winter is so great
that you can scarcely abide it, even with a great quantity of
clothing.[NOTE 6]
NOTE 1. - Kerman is mentioned by Ptolemy, and also by Ammianus amongst the
cities of the country so called (Carmania): "inter quas nitet Carmana
omnium mater." (XXIII. 6.)
M. Pauthier's supposition that Sirjan was in Polo's time the capital, is
incorrect. (See N. et E. XIV. 208, 290.) Our Author's Kerman is the city
still so called; and its proper name would seem to have been Kuwashir.
(See Reinaud, Mem. sur l'Inde, 171; also Sprenger P. and R. R. 77.)
According to Khanikoff it is 5535 feet above the sea.
Kerman, on the fall of the Beni Buya Dynasty, in the middle of the 11th
century, came into the hands of a branch of the Seljukian Turks, who
retained it till the conquests of the Kings of Khwarizm, which just
preceded the Mongol invasion.
