1848.] The Battle Field of Alexander and Porus. 627 



old possessions, viz. the mountain ridge of Gundgurh,* on the left 

 bank of the Indus and about 30 miles above Atok. The Affacini have 

 no doubt long since been identified with the Eusafzyes, who still inha- 

 bit the country they then possessed. The long sought rock Aornos towers 

 high above all the neighbouring mountains, its foot washed by the 

 broad flood of the Indus ; the wide plains of the Affacini spread below 

 it on the south, their inaccessible valleys on the east and west, its 

 sides covered with dense forests of mountain pine. Its numberless 

 and perennial fountains, the support of the tillage of the mountain 

 skirts ; its inexhaustible pastures, the sustenance of myriads of cattle of 

 the Affacini ; its forests and fastnesses, the refuge of all the outlaws for 

 hundreds of miles around ; its summit, furrowed by a hundred ploughs ; 

 its skirts by perhaps eight hundred more ; a mountain almost with- 

 out parallel in the world, and too faithfully described to be mistaken. 



There was formerly a fort upon the crest of this mountain, but its 

 very name is lost, although traces of the walls remain, agreeing exactly, 

 if my informant correctly describes them, with the site of Aornos. 

 Professor Wilson has shown that Aornos may be merely the Greek 

 rendering of the Sanscrit word Awur, a fortification. The use of this 

 word is retained only in ancient sites, and the greater number of these 

 have lost it, in the neighbourhood of the Affacini ; Kote being sub- 

 stituted, and every old castle whose name is lost being called Kawfur 

 Kote, or the castle of the heathens. Upon the crest of Moha Bunn 

 (a name embracing a whole district comprised by the trunk and rami- 

 fications of this mountain, and harboring some ten thousand matchlock- 

 men) Nadir Shah, the Alexander of Persia, encamped his army, as the 

 only means of reducing to order the lawless Affacini. The mountain 

 is a long isolated ridge not less I think in length at summit than 5 

 miles. The height is upwards of 7000 feet above the sea's level, or 

 5000 above that of the Indus. The length at base must be upwards 

 of 12 miles. At the very summit is a small square Tumulus appa- 

 rently from 50 to 100 feet high and scarped with precipices. This may 

 have been the site of the celebrated fortress — Bunn signifies in the 

 language of the country both a forest and a pool, and Maha Bunn 



* This mountain, no thanks to the successor of Taxiles, has been my refuge since 

 the mutiny of the Sikh army, and I despatch this packet therefrom. The Mush- 

 wanis of Srikote are the truest and bravest race in the Punjab. 



