ZAGRUS MONS
ZAGRUS MONS (
ὁ Ζάγρος,
τὸ Ζάγρον ὄρος,
Plb. 5.44;
Ptol. 6.2.4;
Strab. xi. p.522), the central portion of the great chain of mountains which, extending in a direction nearly N. and S. with an inclination to the W. at the upper end, connects the mountains of Armenia and the Caucasus with those of Susiana and Persis.
It separates Assyria from Media, and is now represented by the middle and southern portion of the mountains of
Kurdistán, the highest of which is the well known
Rowandíz. Near this latter mountain was the great highroad which led from Assyria and its capital Nineveh into Media, and, at its base, was in all probability the site of the pass through the mountains, called by Ptolemy
αἱ τοῦ Ζάγρου πύλαι (6.2.7), and by Strabo,
ἡ Μηδικὴ πύλη (xi. p. 525). Polybius notices the difficulty and danger of this pass (5.44), which, from Colonel Rawlinson's narrative, would seem to have lost none of its dangers (Rawlinson, in
Trans. Geogr. Soc. vol. x.,
Pass and Pillar of Keli-Shín [
V]
