578 Notes on the Geography of Western Afghanistan. [June, 



and others to his being overruled in the affair by Mammsea. This in- 

 fluence of the mother was turned against the son by Maximine, his 

 murderer and successor, who urged on the soldiers " to abandon a 

 wretched woman and that easily dispirited boy who could truckle so 

 tamely to a mother's tyranny." 



These coincidences of character will warrant the assumption, that 

 the Alexander mentioned is not the Macedonian conqueror, but the 

 Roman Alexander Severus, and the identifying of Heeruh of Erak 

 with Herat of Khorasan will cover the apparent anachronisms and false 

 statements of the cross on the walls in the days of Urghanoosh ; of the 

 inroads of the Torks or Partheans ; of the ancient and previous Chris- 

 tian inhabitants; and lastly, of Khojuh Khezer's assertion that the city 

 was on a rock of the waters ; which might be the case previous to any 

 change in the course of the Euphrates. The first statement has I 

 suspect an eastern or Indian origin, having reference to a migration 

 westward of the Gundhara tribes of Buddhist Hindoos from the banks 

 of the Indus, and from them may the district of Arachotia have 

 assumed the name of Kundahar. 



Perhaps some Latin author of the period may yet exist, whence the 

 Arabians may have translated their accounts of Heeruh, and thus have 

 furnished them to the Persian makers of histories ; attention will I 

 suspect trace many similar mistakes, and alas ! dishearten readers 

 from placing much faith in Persian or even Arabian histories of periods 

 earlier than the introduction of the creed of Mohummud. 



The Nestorians make Herat to have been the seat of a Metropolitan 

 as early as A. D. 411. That it was destroyed by Othman ; at which 

 period there existed a celebrated fire temple called " Shurshuk." 



The term Herat, in its largest extent, as the capital of any ruling 

 dynasty, may have been often so applied, as to include many distant 

 places, but in its proper restricted sense, it is a very small valley, 

 bounded by hills and intersected by a stream called the Huree rood; 

 the valley is about 80 miles in length, from Obuh to Ghorian and of 

 various breadth, — being about 20 miles in the longitude of the city. 

 This area constitutes Herat proper, but in the common acceptation of 

 the term, are also included many immediate dependencies bearing 

 distinct names. This area is well watered ; on its northern side by 

 kareez, from the hills, and on its southern side by the canals taking 



