Road station
Saphani
Safar (zwischen Muhamedabad und Nau-Kandhan) in Derreh-gez (nach Miller, Itineraria, 794); Sawar etw
Saphani could be either a town or a mountain range, for the ancient sources know both. Isidore of Charax, the first to mention it, names a place Saphri in the region of Nisa, so the entry can hardly be older than the early empire, while Ptolemy describes the Saripha mountains on the border of Margiana and Areia. One suggestion puts the town at Safar in Derreh-gez. The Christian historian Orosius adds a surprise: he says the Ganges rises in the mountains between Catippa and Safris, a clue to how the map draws its far eastern rivers.