The Merv Oasis: Travels and Adventures
East of the Caspian During the Years 1879-80-81,
Including Five Months' Residence Among
the Tekkes of Merv
By
Edmund O'Donovan
Published by G. P. Putnam's sons, 1883 Volume II
Page 56
56 The Deregez.
west and south-east, bounded on the side adjoining the
other Persian provinces by a considerable mountain range,
— the Allah Akbar, or Hazar Masjid, and separated
from the Attock and level Turkmen
country by a low chain of hills. A strip of the plain
beyond these hills was, at the time of my visit, subject
to the Governor
of Deregez, the Turkmen
having accepted the Persian authority, but the boundaries
of this district known as the ‘Attock,’ or
Skirt, were somewhat varying. The length of the plain
within the mountain chains is about seventy miles, and
the width varies from twenty to thirty. A range of
hills divides the plain in the direction of its length. A
gorge, known as ‘Of the Forty Girls,’ gives a
passage through this range, and the town of Muhammedabad,
the capital of the province, stands about three miles
from the northern end of this gorge. Another gorge, with
terribly steep sides, affords a narrow passage along its
bottom from Deregez
to the
Kuchan valley. This road is impracticable for wheeled
carriages of any kind, and it is with difficulty that
even horses traverse it; still, it is the only means of
communication between the provinces. Its entrance is
guarded by a fort; but, though the valley itself is
dotted with watch towers, the ‘Pass of the Forty
Girls ‘has no such protection at its entrance. Turkmen
‘chappos, or plundering expeditions, often slip
through it, and even
get round by the southern end of Deregez into the less
guarded provinces beyond the mountains. The original
Muhammedabad stood close to the entrance of the gorge,
and must have been an effectual bar to such raids, but at
present only the ruins of its fort and ramparts remain.
In Persia, probably owing to some superstition, a town
once abandoned is never re-peopled. Should war, famine,
or plague, cause the population of a place to desert
their homes — and such events are common in
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