s, distinctly states that from the Gates to Rhages was only a
single day's march, and that Alexander accomplished the distance in that
time. Now from Rhei to the Girduni Surdurrah pass, which undoubtedly
represents the Pylae Cacpise of Arrian, is at least fifty miles, a
distance which no army could accomplish in less time than two days.
Rhages consequently must have been considerably to the east of
Rhei, about half-way between it and the celebrated pass which it was
considered to guard. Its probable position is the modern Kaleh Erij,
near Veramin, about 23 miles from the commencement of the Surdurrah
pass, where there are considerable remains of an ancient town.

In the same neighborhood with Rhages, but closer to the Straits, perhaps
on the site now occupied by the ruins known as Uewanukif, or possibly
even nearer to the foot of the pass, was the Median city of Charax, a
place not to be confounded with the more celebrated city called Gharax
Spasini, the birthplace of Dionysius the geographer, which was on the
Persian Gulf, at the mouth of the Tigris.

The other Median cities, whose position can be determined with an
approach to certainty, were in the western portion of the country, in
the range of Zagros, or in the fertile tract between that range and the
desert. The most important of these are Bagistan, Adrapan, Concobar, and
Aspadan.

Bagistan is described by Isidore as a "city situated on a hill, where
there was a pillar and a statue of Semiramis." Diodorus has an account
of the arrival of Semiramis at the place, of her establishing a royal
park or paradise in the plain below the mountain, which was watered
by an abundant spring, of her smoothing the face of the rock where it
descended precipitously upon the low ground, and of her carving on the
surface thus obtained her own effigy, with an inscription in Assyrian
characters. The position assigned to Bagistan by both writers, and the
description of Diodorus, identify the place beyond a doubt with the now
famous Behistun, where the plain, the fountain, the precipitous rock,
and the scarped surface are still to be seen, through the supposed
figure of Semiramis, her pillar, and her inscription have disappeared.
[PLATE II., Fig. 1.] This remarkable spot, lying on the direct route
between Babylon and Ecbatana, and presenting the unusual combination of
a copious fountain, a rich plain, and a rock suitable for sculptures,
must have early attracted the attention of the gr