RECONNAISSANCE IN TURKESTAN 279 



the mouths of the retreating rivers, in places once fertile and now 

 desolate. 



Rtd7is near Atrek River. — A type of regional desolation and aban- 

 donment is in the territor}^ between the lower Atrek and the Caspian. 

 Here, over an area of many square miles, are the ruins of cities, 30 

 or 40 miles from the river Atrek, the nearest water, and in the heart 

 of the desert. The remains of canals show that the cities were 

 watered from the Atrek, but this river now lies too low to feed the 

 canals. 



Ancient Merv. — The ruins of ancient Merv are said to cover about 

 30 square miles and consist of several cities of different ages. Two 

 of these — the Ghiaour Kala and the Iskender Kala appear to be the 

 more ancient. The remains of a circular wall extend, with a radius 

 of about four miles, all around these several cities. To judge from 

 its degraded condition, it may possibly represent a very ancient en- 

 closure within which diminishing populations have rebuilt after 

 successive destructions by war. Merv existed in remote antiquity 

 and is one of the cities mentioned in the Zend Avesta. 



The walls of Ghiaour Kala, though now reduced to a hillocky 

 ridge perhaps 50 or 60 feet high, enclose plateaux, 20 or 30 or more 

 feet high, of accumulated debris. From these walls we could see 

 far away on the northern horizon, in the desert, other flat topped 

 mounds apparently of great height and extent. 



Ruins of Paikend. — The ruins of Paikend represent the type of 

 cities abandoned for lack of water and then buried by the progress- 

 ing desert sands. It was a great center of wealth and of commerce 

 between China and the west and south till in the early centuries of 

 our era. The recession of the lower ends of the Zeraffshan river 

 brought its doom. Now only its citadel mound and the top of parts 

 of its wall rise above the waves of the invading sands. 



Samarkand. — Next to those of Merv the ruins of Samarkand are 

 the most extensive. Its position must have made it an important 

 center of commerce and wealth probably throughout the whole period 

 of prehistoric occupation, as it has been during historic times. Situ- 

 ated in the heart of the very fertile oasis of the Zeraffshan river, it 

 lies also on the most open and easiest caravan routes connecting 

 China and eastern Turkestan with Afghanistan, India, and Persia. 

 Samarkand has, even within the past two thousand years, been 

 sacked, destroyed, and rebuilt many times. Like Merv, its rebuild- 

 ings have often been on adjoining sites, and the determining of the 

 whole area covered by these various sites remains to be made. There 



