188 



\i mi '<.- !;■ n ;i).\i;v commission. 



Termez there are the ruins of gigantic brick buildings, including a 

 large-domed ziarat, said to contain two inscriptions, one on marble 

 and the other on a silver plate, recording three occasions on which 

 the place was sacked, once by Alexander the Great. Beyond 

 Chobash (with the exception of the small new settlement of Kuldar) 

 to the mouth of the Kunduz river, 140 miles above Kilif, there are 

 no inhabitants, and the back water, swamps, and jungles in which 

 tigers and large deer are found, make it impossible to reach the 

 bank of the stream. Sub-Surveyor Ata Mahomed describes the 

 Oxus as a very large river when seen in flood, rarely if ever less 

 than 1,000 yards wide, with a normal width of about 1,400 yards, 

 while in some places it must be a mile across. The winter volume 

 of water may be taken at one half the summer flood, and the 

 average current varies from 2^ to 5 miles. In the neighbourhood 

 of Shahk in Kabadian, not far from the mouth of the Kunduz 

 river, Greek coins and ornaments are found in large quantities. 

 Striking southwards from the Oxus towards any of the great cities 

 of Balkh, Mazar-i-Sharif, or Tashkurghan, there is always the same 

 desolate waste of partially sand-covered country to be crossed 

 before there occurs the first appearance of cultivation. Here and 

 there, on the southern edge of the sand belt, are vast piles of ruins 

 covering many square miles of country. Khanabad, Siahgird, and 

 Khulm are perhaps the most striking of these. 



To the traveller approaching Balkh from the west there is 

 nothing very striking about the " Mother of Cities," nor to indicate 

 its former greatness among the cities of Central Asia. One enters 

 through a gap in the walls which was once a gateway ; inside the 

 outer wall are ruins and mounds of mud and brick on either hand 

 standing so close as hardly to admit of the roadway ; the covered 

 bazaar contains about 400 shops, and gardens and orchards cover 

 a fair extent of ground. But the visible ruins are not very ancient, 

 and most of the past generations of departed cities probably lies 

 beneath the grass-covered mounds which surround the walls rather 

 than below the site. The most striking feature is the extent of the 

 shattered old fort called the Bala Hissar, which overlooks the city 

 and was once its great stronghold. 



The high open road between Balkh and Mazar-i-Sharif passes 

 through a cultivated plain, across which the blue domes of t ]i e 

 mosque at Mazar are very striking objects as they glitter in the 

 sun above dense masses of surrounding trees. About four miles 



