The plateau of Persia lies on the border of both classes; for while the central portion touches 4000 feet, some parts rise much higher and some sink much deeper than the normal point. These balance each other, and the average is about the maximum elevation of plateaus of the second degree.
East of the Persian plateau lies the plateau of Cabool, 6000 feet above the sea. On the northern edge of Afghanistan is the plateau of Bamain, 7500 feet in elevation. More to the south is the high plain of Candahar, being 3500 feet, and the City of Candahar, 3264 feet above the sea. The plateau of Kweltah west of the Bolan Pass is 5220 feet. Still farther to the south is the great plain of Beloochistan, 7000 feet, with the City of Kelat, 5418 feet above the sea.
In the central part of the eastern Persian plateau in ancient Gedrosia, Drangiana, and Parthia, and Lake Zareh, the depression is the lowest. At Lake Zareh the elevation is 2100 feet; at Herat, more to the north, 2628 feet. In West Persia, on the meridian of the Caspian Sea, it rises higher; on the northern edge at Teheran it is 3672 feet; at Schabred, southeast of Astrabad, it is 4000 feet; at Kasbin, west of Teheran, it is 4000 feet; and at Samegon, 5700 feet. The lowest depression at Com and Kashan is not 2000 feet above the sea. Toward the northwest Persia thrusts up a short arm into the adjoining territory of Armenia. This is the highland of Ayerbaijan, Zoroaster’s “Land of Fire.” This connecting plateau of 7000 feet elevation belongs to the first class. To the west of this the plateau of Armenia extends in varying range of elevation, from that of Lake Van, 5124 feet, to the plain of the Aras, (the ancient Araxes,) on which the double cone of Ararat rises to a height of 14,656 feet. But the table-land at the northern base of Ararat, the site of Erdschmiazin, is only 2860 feet high, Erivan a little higher, and Erdzeroune, on the plateau of the Taurus, the plain of the Upper Euphrates, 5730 feet.
The plateaus of Asia Minor embrace wide plains extending through the whole of the country, at an elevation toward the east, in ancient Lycaonia and Cappadocia, of 3000 feet, and sinking toward the west to 2000 feet.
To the plateaus of Armenia and Lycaonia, Strabo, whose home was there, and who carefully studied them, gave the expressive name of ὀροπέδια, i.e. mountain plains, a term which corresponds remarkably with our word plateau, but which, as Humboldt has remarked, was not of much use among the ancients. Strabo, however, directed attention also to the Oropedia of Sicily and India.
In India, Deccan displays similar formations, which rise gradually from south to north in Mysore, in Poonah of the Mahrattas, and in the table-land of Vindhya and Malwah, to 2000, 3000, and even 4000 feet. Deccan enjoys an admirable climate and the richest abundance of all natural productions. China too must have plateaus, for the Chinese word youen indicates very clearly a large elevated plain.
In Arabia the plateaus of the second class are largely found, and their height ascends from north to south, instead of from south to north as in Deccan. The Syrian Hauran is 2000 feet high, the plateau of Damascus 2200 feet, the plateau of Taif, above Mecca, 3000 feet, the plateau of Sapaa, in Southern Arabia, 4000 feet.
In North Africa that portion of the great Sahara which has heretofore been considered a low plain, lying between Tripoli and Lake Tchad, has been ascertained by the German explorers, Overweg and Vogel, to be a table-land of the second class, ranging in elevation from 1000 to 2000 feet. It begins at the Chorean plateau (2000 feet) in the south of Tripoli, and sinks to an elevation of 800 feet in the neighborhood of Lake Tchad. The average altitude is about 1500 feet. This moderate elevation of Sahara corresponds with the equally high plateau of Cyrenaica, 2000 feet.
The Atlas plateau, in the northwest of Africa, rises to a greater height—2000 to 3000 feet; the upper course of the Draa, near the Sahara, being 3000 feet; the high, broad table-land on which Timbuctoo lies, according to Renon’s measurement, is 1500 to 1800 feet above the sea.