1836.] Memoir on the Ancient Coins of Beghrdm. 3 



distance occurs of four and half to five miles ; from Jdlghar to the skirts 

 of the Steh Koh, about six miles ; from the termination of Koh Sidh to 

 Killah Yezbdshi may be also about six miles, and from Killah Yezbdshi 

 to Killah Boland about four miles, as just noted. The whole of the 

 intermediate space between these points, and even beyond them to the 

 south-east and south-west, is covered with fragments of pottery, lumps 

 of dross iron, &c. and here are found the coins, seals, rings, &c. which 

 so much excite our curiosity. Notwithstanding the vast numbers of 

 such reliques discovered on this extent of plain, we have hardly any 

 other evidence that a city once stood on it, so complete and universal 

 has been the destruction of its buildings. But in many places, we may 

 discover, on digging about the depth of a yard, lines of cement, which 

 seem to denote the outlines of structures, and their apartments ; on the 

 edge of the plain, where it abruptly sinks into the low lands of Bdltd 

 Khele, from Killah Boland to KdrdhicM, is a line of artificial mounds ; 

 on the summit of the eminence called Abdullah Bdrj are also some 

 extraordinary mounds, as before noted, and contiguous to the south 

 is a large square described by alike surprising mounds ; on one side 

 of this square, the last year, a portion sank or subsided, and disclosed 

 that these mounds were formed or constructed of huge unburnt bricks, 

 two spans square and one span in thickness. This circumstance also 

 enabled me to ascertain that the original breadth of these stupendous 

 walls, for such we must conclude them to have been, could not have 

 been less than sixty feet ; probably much more. Among the mounds 

 near Killah Boland is a large tumulus, probably a sepulchre, which 

 appears to have been coated with thin squares of white marble ; and 

 near it, in a hollow formed in the soil, is a large square stone, which the 

 Muhammedans call Sang-Rustam, or the stone of Rustam, and which the 

 Hindus, without knowing why, reverence so far as to pay occasional 

 visits to it, light lamps, and daub it with Sinddr or red lead. In the 

 Muhammedan burial ground of Killah Boland is a fragment of sculptured 

 green stone, made to serve as the head- stone to a grave ; about four 

 feet thereof is above ground, and we were told as much more was 

 concealed below , this is a relique of the ancient city, and we meet with 

 another larger but plain green stone, applied to a similar purpose, in a 

 burial ground called Shahidan, or the place of martyrs, under Koh Butcher. 

 In a Zedrat at Charikdr is also a fragment of sculptured green sfcone ; 

 and it is remarkable that all the fragments of stone which we discover, 

 and which we may suppose to have reference to the ancient city, ara of 

 the same species of colored stone. The traditions of the country assert 

 the city of Beghrdm to have been overwhelmed by some natural catas- 

 trophe, and while we vouch not for the fact, the entire demolition of the 

 b 2 



