Teheran

Teheran, or TEHRAN, capital of Persia, 70 miles S. of the shore of the Caspian Sea. It stands on a wide plain, dotted here and there with mud-built villages, and pierced with many circular pits, which reach down to the great subterranean watercourses, on which, in this region, the life of animal and plant is altogether dependent. To the north runs in a general east and west direction the lofty range of the Elburz Mountains, rising in Demavend to the height of nearly 20,000 feet above sea-level. The old wall and ditch (4 miles long) were levelled in 1868, and the space thus gained made into a much needed circular road or boulevard. Fortifications, consisting of a bastioned rampart and ditch, were at the same time commenced on a much more extended scale. This enceinte, with its twelve gates and enclosing an area about 10 miles in circumference, was completed in 1873. The town rapidly extended beyond its old limits, more especially on the north side, where many fine streets, gardens, and buildings soon made their appearance, among which may be specially mentioned the handsome buildings and grounds of the British Legation. The Shah's palace, entirely reconstructed since 1866, occupies the Citadel, and is both spacious and cheerful, its large courtyards being laid out with gardens and numerous fountains. Besides his town palace, the Shah has five others in the immediate neighbourhood, which he occupies at different seasons of the year. The foreign legations and rich natives are also in the habit of resorting in summer to the cool slopes at the foot of the Elburz, where many of them have commodious houses and fine gardens. The bazaars, some of which are very handsome structures, are filled with every kind of native and foreign merchandise. From Teheran lines of telegraph radiate in almost every direction to the extremities of the kingdom, by far the most important being the lines of the Indian Government Indo-European Telegraph Department and those of the English Indo-European Telegraph Company. In 1886 a short line of railway was constructed from Teheran to Shah Abdul Azim, a shrine and place of pilgrimage about 6 miles to the southward of the town. Tramways were also laid down in different parts of the city; and gas was introduced (by a Belgian company) in March 1892. The population probably amounted in 1900 to 230,000, about double what it was fifty years before. In the same period the number of Europeans increased from about 30 to 1000. In the vicinity of Teheran are the ruins of Rei, the Rhages of the Book of Tobit, known in the time of Alexander the Great under the name of Rage and the birthplace of Harûn-al-Raschid. See PERSIA, and works there cited.