And the ruins of a mosque, I saw
no more buildings in Persia. Persia is, on the whole, very thinly
populated, on account of the scarcity of water. No country in the
world has more mountains, and fewer rivers, than Persia. The air
is, on this account, very dry and hot.
The valley in which Arax is situated is large, and the extraordinary
formation of the mountains and rocks renders it very picturesque.
In the extreme distance rise lofty mountains, of which Ararat is
more than 16,000 feet in height, and in the valley itself there are
numerous rocky elevations. The principal of these, a beautiful
sharp rocky cone, of at least 1,000 feet in height, is called the
Serpent Mountain.
The river Aras flows close to the headland. It separates Armenia
from Media, has a terrible fall, and high waves. It here forms the
boundary between the Russian and Persian dominions. We crossed in a
boat. On the opposite side of the river were several small houses
where travellers are obliged to stop and prove that they are not
robbers, and especially that they are not politically dangerous.
Occasionally they are detained in quarantine for some time, when the
plague or cholera happens to be prevalent in Persia.
