28o CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



is evidence that it is very extensive. The most ancient seems to be 

 the plateau or "tell " called "Afrosiab," to which tradition assigns 

 the site of the Samarkand Maracanda of Alexander the Great. This 

 is a plateau of "made earth," the debris of ruins, standing on the 

 "loess" plain. It is covered to a great extent with Mohammedan 

 cemeteries, and some traces of Mussulman occupation, and with 

 fragments of pottery and of bricks. The loess plain is deeply dis- 

 sected by a stream, and several gullies have been cut in both the 

 plateau of the ruins and the loess. It is difficult to distinguish be- 

 tween the ' ' made earth ' ' of the plateau and the underlying ' ' loess, ' ' 

 except through the presence of fragments of pottery, charcoal, and 

 bones. 



We found such fragments down to a depth of about 40 feet below 

 the general surface, in the gullies, and it is not improbable that the 

 thickness of debris is still greater. Above this general surface rises 

 the citadel mound to an additional height of 30 to 40 feet, or 170 

 feet above the stream at its base. Judging from the excellent topo- 

 graphical map of Afrosiab, of the general staff, the loess plain lies 

 about 50 feet above the stream. This would make it possible that 

 the citadel mound represents an accumulation of over 100 feet of 

 debris. The surface of the rest of Afrosiab is very irregular. 

 While in general it ranges from 100 to 140 feet above the stream, 

 there are numerous depressions, the bottoms of which are level 

 plains, 150 to 300 feet in diameter, standing 70 to 80 feet above the 

 stream. 



The general arrangement of these depressions is such that if filled 

 with water they would form a connected, irregular system of ponds ; 

 and there is a channel about 100 feet wide which starts in high up 

 on the cliffs overhanging the stream, and, traversing Afrosiab, opens 

 out again on to the stream valley, after communicating with most 

 of the depressions. It all suggests a former water system, but it is 

 one that it would seem could have been effective only if the stream 

 ran at a considerably higher level than at present. The large scale 

 map of the district shows this stream to diverge from the Serafschan 

 in the same manner as many irrigating canals, and to run with a lower 

 grade than the parent river, the river having a grade of about 20 feet 

 per verst as against about 7 feet in the derivative stream or canal. 

 Judging from these facts it seems not impossible that this stream was 

 originally a canal supplying the city, and that it has in the course 

 of ages cut its channel deeper in the ' ' loess. ' ' 



The former walls of the city are represented now by ridges rising 



