Tebreez is celebrated as one of the most healthy cities in Persia, and
it is on this ground alone that we can account for its being so often
rebuilt after its repeated demolition by earthquakes. It is seldom free
even for a twelvemonth from slight shocks; and it is not yet so much as
a century since it was levelled to the ground by one of those terrible
convulsions of nature.
Sir John Malcolm, when he visited this place, was more surprised at its
salubrity, from knowing the great extremes of heat and cold to which it
is subject; having obtained from a friend who had resided there during
the whole of the preceding year, a most accurate diary of the various
changes of its climate.
"From this, it appeared that on the 20th of October there was a heavy
fall of snow, which did not, however, remain long upon the ground: the
weather again became mild, and there was no excessive cold until the
middle of December, from which period, until the end of January,
Fahrenheit's thermometer, when exposed to the air at night, never rose
above zero; and in the house at mid-day it was seldom above 18°.
"January was by far the coldest month. During it, the water is described
as becoming almost instantaneously solid in the tumblers upon the
dining-table, and the ink often freezing in the ink-stand, although the
table was close to the fire. For at least a fortnight, not an egg was to
be had, all being split by the cold. Some bottles of wine froze,
although covered with straw, and many of the copper ewers were split by
the expansion of the water when frozen in them.
"According to this diary, the weather became comparatively mild towards
the end of February; but it appears that here, as in England,
'A lingering winter chills the lap of May;'
for, on the first of that month, there was a heavy fall of snow, with
such cold that all promise of the spring was destroyed. Of the heat that
ensued, and the sudden and great changes to which Tebreez is subject, we
had abundant proof; in the month of June, the range of the thermometer
being usually, within the twenty-four hours, from 56° to 94°,--a
difference of 38°.
"The extreme heat of the summer causes most of the houses in Tebreez to
be built so as to admit the air during that season; but the architects
of Persia fall short of their brethren in Europe, in forming places by
which the cool air can be admitted in summer, and excluded in winter.
This partly accounts for the above effects of cold; but the city of
Tebreez, and many more parts of Aderbejan, and still more of the
neighbouring province of Kûrdistan, though nowhere beyond the 40th
degree of latitude, are, from their great elevation, subject to extreme
cold. In the latter country (says Sir John Malcolm) I found, on the
morning of the 17th of August, ice half an inch thick on a basin of
water standing in my tent."[4]
-----
Footnote 4:
Sketches of Persia.
------------------