You were destined to close the gates, Darian.
They're telling me I can't close the gates.
But while the province in many parts presents a landscape of luxuriant beauty, it is a prey to the ravages of disease, principally malarial fevers due to the extensive swamps formed by waters stagnating in the forests, and to the frequent incursions of the Goklan and Yomut Turkomans, who have their camping-grounds in the northern part of the province, and until about 1890 plundered caravans sometimes at the very gates of Astarabad city, and carried people off into slavery and bondage.
When Alexander had won the victory of Arbela, and occupied Babylon and Susa, he met (in the spring of 330) with strong resistance in Persia, where the satrap Ariobarzanes tried to stop his progress at the "Persian gates," the pass leading up to Persepolis.
Of the ancient gates but two remain, the Ponttor on the N.W.