Regional Descriptions: Help the EBII Team

[Rex Somnorum]

I've finished the traveller's log and I'd prefer a review of the style before progressing:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Traveller's Log
Approaching from Karmania, the traveller enters the Persian heartland, a land of broad river basins and plateaus cradled by the Zagros, through a rift in the eastern mountains and first sets foot on arid lowlands locally called the garmsir, or “warm lands.” Sparse rain falls in the south and east and agriculture is only sustained by a complex web of irrigation ditches criss-crossing the country. Journeying further west, the traveller encounters Pasargad – the early capital of the Kings of Kings. Built at the command of Cyrus the Great, Pasargad still houses his tomb, though he fell in battle before the city's completion. Leaving Pasargad and continuing west, the traveller comes upon the jewel of the Persian empire: Parsapura, known to the Greeks as Persepolis. Despite burning to the ground during Alexander's campaigns, the city retains some of its former glory even today. As the largest and most central settlement in the region, Persepolis contains the administrative headquarters for Persis and remains a hub for trade between India and the West. Farther past Persepolis and nearer the salt lakes in the north lies Anshan, the ancient seat of Persian power and original home of Cyrus the Great. The Mand river separates Anshan from the other cities in the east and, should the traveller choose to follow it southward, winds to narrow coastal plains stretching between the southern mountains and the Persian Gulf. If the traveller had continued west from Anshan, however, they would climb onto the cooler, wetter highland plains called the sardsir, or “cold lands.” Although more rain falls, the hilly nature of the land precludes irrigation and farmers rely mainly on precipitation to water crops. At the western edge of the province, mountain passes lead to Elam and Babylonia or northward to Media.

Both garmsir and sardsir are modern Persian. After researching sources on Old Persian, I could find no tenable translation, and even Old Avestan is problematic. I'll probably cut both terms if I can't find a suitable approximation. Much of the description is based on the comfortable assumption that the climate has changed little in the last 2,300 years. Given that weather in Iran is largely determined by topographically generated microclimates, this is probably a safe assertion.