City
Albania
Ḥulvān · Holwand = Pol-e Zohāb
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Beside a mountain range that probably stands for the Zagros, the road on the map runs into Albania and simply stops. In reality the town, ancient Ḥulvān near Pol-e Zohāb in western Iran, was no dead end: it guarded the climb over the Zagros pass towards the Iranian plateau, on the great trade route from Mesopotamia to Central Asia. A list of places compiled in Ravenna gives the name in a form meaning 'from Albania', a hint that the route once went on. The name renders the local Ḥulvān and has nothing to do with the Caucasian Albania drawn nearby.
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