“The distance between Kerman and Kuh-benan in a direct line amounts to 103 miles. Marco Polo travelled over this stretch in seven days, or barely 15 miles a day. From Kuh-benan to Tebbes the distance is 150 miles, or fully 18 miles a day for eight days. From Kuh-benan viâ Naibend to Tun, the distance is, on the other hand, 205 miles, or more than 25 miles a day. In either case we can perceive from the forced marches that after leaving Kuh-benan he came out into a country where the distances between the wells became much greater.
“If he travelled by the eastern route he must have made much longer day’s journeys than on the western. On the eastern route the distances between the wells were greater. Major Sykes has himself travelled this way, and from his detailed description we get the impression that it presented particular difficulties. With a horse it is no great feat to ride 25 miles a day for eight days, but it cannot be done with camels. That I rode 42½ miles a day between Hauz-i-Haji-Ramazan and Sadfe was because of the danger from rain in the Kevir, and to continue such a forced march for more than two days is scarcely conceivable. Undoubtedly Marco Polo used camels on his long journeys in Eastern Persia, and even if he had been able to cover 205 miles in eight days, he would not be obliged to do so, for on the main road through Naibend and Duhuk to Tun there are abundant opportunities of procuring water. Had he travelled through Naibend, he would in any case have had no need to hurry on so fast. He would probably keep to the same pace as on the way from Kerman to Kuh-benan, and this length he accomplished in seven days. 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 détour to the west, through the moderate-sized village Bahabad, for from this village a direct caravan road runs to Tebbes, entirely through desert. Marco Polo would then travel 150 miles in eight days compared with 103 miles in seven days between Kerman and Kuh-benan. He therefore increased his speed by only 4 miles a day, and that is all necessary on the route in question.
“Bahabad lies at a distance of 36 miles from Kubenan—all in a straight line. And not till beyond Bahabad does the real desert begin.
“To show that a caravan road actually connects Tebbes with Bahabad, I have inserted in the first and second columns of the following table the data I obtained in Tebbes and Fahanunch, and in the third the names marked on the ‘Map of Persia (in six sheets) compiled in the Simla Drawing Office of the Survey of India, 1897.’
| From Tebbes to Bahabad. | From Fahanunch to Bahabad. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Kurit | 4 | 2. | Moghu | 4½ | ||
| 2. | Moghu | 9 | 3. | Sefid-ab | 6 | ||
| 3. | Sefid-ab | 6 | 4. | Belucha | 5 | ||
| 4. | Burch | 5 | 5. | God-i-shah-taghi | 6 | ||
| 5. | God | 5 | 6. | Rizab | 5 | ||
| 6. | Rizab | 6 | 7. | Teng-i-Tebbes | 4½ | ||
| 7. | Pudenum | 8 | Pudenun | 4½ | |||
| 8. | Ser-i-julge | 4 | 8. | Kheirabad | 4 | ||
| 9. | Bahabad | 4 | 9. | Bahabad | 4 | ||
— | —— | ||||||
| Farsakh | 51 | Farsakh | 43½ | ||||
| Map of Persia. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
2. | Maga | Salt well. | ||
3. | Chasma Sufid | „ „ | ||
4. | Khudafrin | Sweet spring. | ||
| Pir Moral | Salt well. | |||
5. | God Hashtaki | „ „ | ||
6. | Rezu | „ „ | ||
“These details are drawn from different authorities, but are in excellent agreement. That the total distances are different in the first two columns is because Fahanunch lies nearer than Tebbes to Bahabad. Two or three discrepancies in the names are of no importance. Burch denotes a castle or fort; Belucha is evidently Cha-i-beluch or the well of the Baluchi, and it is very probable that a small fort was built some time or other at this well which was visited by raiders from Baluchistan. Ser-i-julge and Kheirabad may be two distinct camping grounds very near each other. The Chasma Sufid or ‘white spring’ of the English map is evidently the same place as Sefid-ab, or ‘white water.’ Its God Hashtaki is a corruption of the Persian God-i-shah-taghi, or the ‘hollow of the royal saxaul.’ Khudafrin, on the other hand, is very apocryphal. It is no doubt Khuda-aferin or ‘God be praised!’—an ejaculation very appropriate in the mouth of a man who comes upon a sweet spring in the midst of the desert. If an Englishman travelled this way he might have mistaken this ejaculation for the name of the place. But then ‘Unsurveyed’ would hardly be placed just in this part of the Bahabad Desert.
“The information I obtained about the road from Tebbes to Bahabad was certainly very scanty, but also of great interest. Immediately beyond Kurit the road crosses a strip of the Kevir, 2 farsakh broad, and containing a river-bed which is said to be filled with water at the end of February. Sefid-ab is situated among hillocks and Burch in an upland district; to the south of it follows Kevir barely a farsakh broad, which may be avoided by a circuitous path. At God-i-shah-taghi, as the name implies, saxaul grows (Haloxylon Ammodendron). The last three halting-places before Bahabad all lie among small hills.