It was also the opinion (1882) of Colonel C.E.  Stewart, who says:  “I was much interested in hearing of Kuh Banan, as it is one of the places mentioned by Marco Polo as on his route.  Kuh Banan is described as a group of villages about 26 miles from the town of Rawar, in the Karman district.  I cannot help thinking the road travelled by Marco Polo from Karman to Kain is the one by Naiband.  Marco Polo speaks of Tun-o-Cain, which, Colonel Yule has pointed out, undoubtedly means Tun and Kain.  At present Tun does not belong to the Kain district, but to the Tabbas district, and is always spoken of as Tun-o-Tabbas; and if it belonged, as I believe it formerly did, to the Kain district, it would be spoken of as Tun-o-Kain, exactly as Marco Polo does.  Through Naiband is the shortest and best road to either Tun or Kain.” (Proc.  Royal Geog.  Soc., VIII., 1886, p. 144.)

Support to Yule’s theory has been brought by Sven Hedin, who devotes a chapter to Marco Polo in his Overland to India, II., 1910, Chap.  XL., and discusses our traveller’s route between Kuh-benan and Tabbas, pp. 71 seq.: 

“As even Sykes, who travelled during several years through Persia in all directions, cannot decide with full certainty whether Marco Polo travelled by the western route through Tebbes or the eastern through Naibend, it is easy to see how difficult it is to choose between the two roads.  I cannot cite the reasons Sir Henry Yule brings forward in favour of the western route—­it would take us too far.  I will, instead, set forth the grounds of my own conviction that Marco Polo used the direct caravan road between Kuh-benan and Tebbes.

“The circumstance that the main road runs through Naibend is no proof, for we find that Marco Polo, not only in Persia but also in Central Asia, exhibited a sovereign contempt for all routes that might be called convenient and secure.

“The distance between Kerman and Kuh-benan in a direct line amounts to 103 miles.  Marco Polo travelled over this stretch in seven days, or barely 15 miles a day.  From Kuh-benan to Tebbes the distance is 150 miles, or fully 18 miles a day for eight days.  From Kuh-benan via Naibend to Tun, the distance is, on the other hand, 205 miles, or more than 25 miles a day.  In either case we can perceive from the forced marches that after leaving Kuh-benan he came out into a country where the distances between the wells became much greater.

“If he travelled by the eastern route he must have made much longer day’s journeys than on the western.  On the eastern route the distances between the wells were greater.  Major Sykes has himself travelled this way, and from his detailed description we get the impression that it presented particular difficulties.  With a horse it is no great feat to ride 25 miles a day for eight days, but it cannot be done with camels.  That I rode 42-1/2 miles a day between Hauz-i-Haji-Ramazan and Sadfe was because of the danger from rain in the Kevir,