Bab wa-l-Abwab (Derbent)

الباب والأبواب

Bab wa-l-Abwab (Derbent), the city Anushirwan Kisra ibn Qubadh built, named 'gates' for the narrows on which it stands; before it his father Qubadh had built the wall of al-Lubn between Shirwan's land and Bab al-Lan with three hundred and sixty cities upon it, ruined after Bab wa-l-Abwab's building; Anushirwan's wall was built of rock and lead at the sea's edge, three hundred cubits wide, joined to the mountain-tops, running three miles into the sea over ship-sunk stones, iron gates hung at its entry, a hundred riders posted where fifty thousand soldiers had been needed, with an armoured redoubt upon it — all through the peace he feigned with the Turk king.