DARAB (originally DARABGERD)  , a district of the province of Fars in Persia . It has sixty-two villages, and possesses a hot climate, snow being rarely seen there in winter . It produces a great quantity of dates and much tobacco, which is considered the best in Persia . The town Darab, the capital of the district, is situated in a very fertile plain, 140 M . S.E. of Shiraz . It has a population of about 5000, and extensive orchards of orange and lemon trees and immense plantations of date-palms . Legend ascribes the foundation of the city to Darius, hence its name Darab-gerd (Darius-town) . In the neighbourhood there arevarious remains of antiquity, the most important of which m . S., is known as the Kalah i Dal-a, or citadel of Darius, and consists of a series of earthworks arranged in a circle round an isolated rock . Nothing, however, remains to fix the date or explain the history of the fortification . Another monument in the vicinity is a gigantic bas-relief, carved on the vertical face of a rock, representing the victory of the Sassanian Shapur I . (Sapor) of Persia over the Roman emperor Valerian, A.D .

260 .