FARS, a province of Persia, bounded by Irak on the north, Kerman and Laristan on the east, Kuzistan on the west, and on the south by the Persian Gulf. This province is divided into the Germaseer and Sirhud, or the warm and the cold climates. It is in general sandy and barren, though with some considerable exceptions. The l’abris, formed by the junction, within a few miles of the town of Zeitoon, of two streams which take their rise in the mountains of Fars, is the most considerable river of the province. It divides Fars from Kuzistan, and, eight miles below the town of Endian, falls into the sea. The warm region of this district extends from the sea to the latitude of Kazeroon, and runs parallel with the gulf from the banks of the Tabris to the confines of Laristan. It is chiefly a sandy plain at the foot of the mountains, the cultivation of which depends on the periodical rains; and when these prove abundant, the country yields abundance of dry grain; but when the rains fail, which too frequently happens, a famine generally ensues. The sandy plain, or the Dushtistan as it is called, is divided into two districts, which are separated by the projecting mountain or Bung. These two districts are thinly peopled and badly cultivated; and the few mud villages which are scattered over the plain bespeak but too clearly the wretchedness and poverty of their possessors. The cold region comprehends most of the mountainous part of Fars, extending from the latitude of Kazeroon to that of the town of Yezdekhast, situated on the bed of what appears to have been formerly a river, which separates this province from Irak. The mountains are here intersected by plains, which seldom exceed eight or ten miles in breadth, whilst in length they vary from fifteen to a hundred. They are in general fertile, affording abundance of pasturage; nor are they so deficient in water as they have sometimes been represented. A few of them, such as those of Shiraz, Kazeroon, and Merdesht, are tolerably well cultivated. But they are for the most part, particularly to the northward and westward, destitute of inhabitants. It is mentioned by Kinneir, in his Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire, that in 1809 he travelled in this country “through the most delightful valleys, covered with wood and verdure,” but all was solitary, nor was the face of a human being anywhere to be seen. The country, it appears, had been possessed by a predatory tribe, who, in consequence of their licentious conduct, had been extirpated by the vengeance of the prince, and who having in consequence fled to the lofty and inaccessible mountains, lived there on the scanty fare of a sort of bread afforded by acorns, and thence sallying forth on the low country beneath, robbed and plundered the unwary traveller, sometimes extending their inroads to villages, the inhabitants of which they either murdered, or carried away captive, to be sold for slaves in an unknown and distant land. The face of the country in the eastern parts of Fars is somewhat different, being open, the plains of greater extent, and of a sandy soil, where water is not so plentiful. The great range of mountains seen from the coast is a mere elongation of the chain of Mount Tagros, which extends in a continued succession of ridges from the borders of the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. These hills in Fars are situated at different distances from the sea. At Bushire they are distant twenty-four miles. But towards Bunder Reig the plain becomes contracted; and a low ridge, known by the name of Kohi Bung, or the hill of Bung, and about seven or eight miles broad, suddenly projects to the south, and touching the sea, separates the district of Leerawee from that of Hiadouat. Beyond this hill, at the plain of Leerawee, the mountains are about twenty miles distant from the sea, at which distance they continue for eighteen or nineteen miles, when they again approach the south; and this branch is known by the name of Zeitoon, on turning the southern point of which they again abruptly retire to the northward; and at the port of Mashoor they are thirty miles from the sea. The principal towns of the province are Shiraz, the capital, with 40,000 inhabitants; Bushire, the chief port in the Persian Gulf; Darabjerb, Bebahan, and some others. Within its confines also are the ruins of the cities of Shapoor and Persepolis; the latter containing some magnificent remains of antiquity.