[“To the west of Narin-Kaleh, a fortress which from the top of a promontory rises above the city, the wall, strengthened from distance to distance by large towers, follows the ridge of the mountains, descends into the ravines, and ascends the slopes to take root on some remote peak. If the natives were to be believed, this wall, which, however, no longer has any strategetical importance, had formerly its towers bristling upon the Caucasus chain from one sea to another; at least, this rampart did protect all the plains at the foot of the eastern Caucasus, since vestiges were found up to 30 kilometres from Derbend.” (_Reclus, Asie russe_, p. 160.) It has belonged to Russia since 1813. The first European traveller who mentions it is Benjamin of Tudela. Bretschneider (II. p. 117) observes: “Yule complains that he was not able to find any modern information regarding the famous Caucasian Wall which begins at Derbend. I may therefore observe that interesting details on the subject are found in Legkobytov’s _Survey of the Russian Dominions beyond the Caucasus_ (in Russian), 1836, vol. iv. pp. 158–161, and in Dubois de Montpéreux’s _Voyage autour du Caucase_, 1840, vol. iv. pp. 291–298, from which I shall give here an abstract.” (He then proceeds to give an abstract, of which the following is a part:) “The famous _Dagh bary_ (mountain wall) now begins at the village of _Djelgan_, 4 versts south-west of Derbend, but we know that as late as the beginning of the last century it could be traced down to the southern gate of the city. This ancient wall then stretches westward to the high mountains of Tabasseran (it seems the Tabarestan of Mas’udi).... Dubois de Montpéreux enumerates the following sites of remains of the wall:—In the famous defile of _Dariel_, north-east of Kazbek. In the valley of the _Assai_ river, near Wapila, about 35 versts north-east of Dariel. In the valley of the Kizil river, about 15 versts north-west of Kazbek. Farther west, in the valley of the _Fiag_ or _Pog_ river, between _Lacz_ and _Khilak_. From this place farther west about 25 versts, in the valley of the _Arredon_ river, in the district of _Valaghir_. Finally, the westernmost section of the Caucasian Wall has been preserved, which was evidently intended to shut up the maritime defile of _Gagry_, on the Black Sea.”—H. C.] There is another wall claiming the title of _Sadd-i-Iskandar_ at the S.E. angle of the Caspian. This has been particularly spoken of by Vámbéry, who followed its traces from S.W. to N.E. for upwards of 40 miles. (See his _Travels in C. Asia_, 54 _seqq._, and _Julius Braun_ in the _Ausland_, No. 22, of 1869.) Yule (II. pp. 537–538) says, “To the same friendly correspondent [Professor Braun] I owe the following additional particulars on this interesting subject, extracted from _Eichwald, Periplus des Kasp. M._ I. 128.