Why should he have made the journey from
Kuh-benan to Tun, which is exactly double as far, in only eight days
instead of fourteen, when there was no necessity? And that he actually
travelled between Kuh-benan and Tunocain in eight days is evident, because
he mentions this number twice.
"He also says explicitly that during these eight days neither fruits nor
trees are to be seen, and that you have to carry both food and water. This
description is not true of the Naibend route, for in Naibend there are
excellent water, fine dates, and other fruits. Then there is Duhuk, which,
according to Sykes, is a very important village with an old fort and about
200 houses. After leaving Duhuk for the south, Sykes says: 'We continued
our journey, and were delighted to hear that at the next stage, too, there
was a village, proving that this section of the Lut is really quite
thickly populated.' [Ten Thousand Miles in Persia, p. 35.] This does not
agree at all with Marco Polo's description.
"I therefore consider it more probable that Marco Polo, as Sir Henry Yule
supposes, travelled either direct to Tebbes, or perhaps made a trifling
detour to the west, through the moderate-sized village Bahabad, for from
this village a direct caravan road runs to Tebbes, entirely through
desert.
