218 



EARTH FEATURES AND THEIR MEANING 



FIG. 232. Mounds upon the site of the buried 

 city of Nippur (after the cast by Muret). 



tailing together of the eolian and alluvial deposits at their com- 

 mon junction (Fig. 231). 



In addition to the smaller periodic alternations of pluvial and 



interpluvial climate 

 the " pulse of Asia " 

 the record of the Asiatic 

 deserts indicates a pro- 

 gressive desiccation of 

 the entire region, which 

 has now given the vic- 

 tory to the dune. The 

 ancient history of the 

 cities of the plains sup- 

 plies the records of many 

 that have been buried 

 in the dunes. To-day, 

 where once were pros- 

 perous cities, nothing is 

 to be seen at the surface but a group of mounds (Fig. 232). Ex- 

 humed after much painstaking labor, the walls and palaces of 



these ancient cities 



have once more been 

 brought to the light 

 of day, and much 

 has thus been 

 learned of the civi- 

 lization of these 

 early times (Fig. 

 233). Quite re- 

 cently the mounds 

 which cover be- 

 tween one and two 

 hundred buried vil- 

 lages have been 

 found upon the bor- 

 ders of the Tarim 

 basin of central Asia, where they were lost to history when 

 they were overwhelmed in the early centuries of the Christian 

 Era. 



FIG. 233. Exhumed structures in the buried city of 

 Nippur (after Hilprecht). 



