the mountain region of Zagros, inhabited principally, during the earlier
times of the Empire, by the Zimri, and afterwards occupied by the Medes,
and known as a portion of Media. This region is one of great strength,
and at the same time of much productiveness and fertility. Composed of a
large number of parallel ridges. Zagros contains, besides rocky and
snow-clad summits, a multitude of fertile valleys, watered by the great
affluents of the Tigris or their tributaries, and capable of producing
rich crops with very little cultivation. The sides of the hills are in
most parts clothed with forests of walnut, oak, ash, plane, and
sycamore, while mulberries, olives, and other fruit-trees abound; in
many places the pasturage is excellent; and thus, notwithstanding its
mountainous character, the tract will bear a large population. Its
defensive strength is immense, equalling that of Switzerland before
military roads were constructed across the High Alps. The few passes by
which it can be traversed seem, according to the graphic phraseology of
the ancients, to be carried up ladders; they surmount six or seven
successive ridges, often reaching the elevation of 10,000 feet, and are
only open during seven months of the year. Nature appears to have
intended Zagros as a seven fold wall for the protection of the fertile
Mesopotamian lowland from the marauding tribes inhabiting the bare
plateau of Iran.

North of Assyria lays a country very similar to the Zagros region.
Armenia, like Kurdistan, consists, for the most part of a number of
parallel mountain ranges, with deep valleys between them, watered by
great rivers or their affluents. Its highest peaks, like those of
Zagros, ascend considerably above the snow-line. It has the same
abundance of wood, especially in the more northern parts; and though its
valleys are scarcely so fertile, or its products so abundant and varied,
it is still a country where a numerous population may find subsistence.