lO 
EXPLORATIONS IN TURKESTAN. 
nearest water, and in the heart of the desert. The remains of canals show that the 
cities were watered from tlie Atrek, but the ri\er now lies too low to feed the canals. 
Ancient Mcrv. — The ruins of ancient Merv are said to cover about 30 square 
miles and consist of several cities of different a<j;es. Two of these — the (Ihiaur 
Kala and the Iskender Kala — apjicar to Ijc the more ancient. The remains of a 
circular wall extend, with a radius of about 4 miles, all around these several cities. To 
judge from its degraded condition, it may possibly represent a \ery ancient inclosure, 
within which diminishino- populations have rebuilt after sticcessive destructions by 
war. Merv existed in remote antiquity and is one of the cities mentioned in the 
Zend A\-esta. 
The walls of (ihiaur Kala, though now reduced to a hillocky ridge perhaps 50 
or 60 feel high, of accumulated debris, inclose plateaus 30 to 50 or more feet high. 
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Fig. 5. — Remains of Earthen Wall in the Anau Tumulus. 
and a mound 80 feet high which was e\-identh- a citadel. From these walls we 
could see far away on the northern horizon, in the desert, other flat-topped mounds 
apparently of great height and extent. 
Ruins of Paikent. — The ruins of Paikent represent the t\pe of cities aban- 
doned for lack of water and then buried by the progressing desert sands. Paikent 
was a great center of wealth and of connuerce between China and the west and 
south till in the early centuries of our era. The recessions of the lower ends of the 
Zerafshan river brought its doom. Now onh' its citadel mound and the top of parts 
of its walls rise above the waves of the invading sands. (Fig. 7.) 
Samarkand. — Next to those of Merv the ruins of Samarkand are the most exten- 
sive. Its position must li i\-e made it an important center of commerce and wealth 
probabh' throughout tlie whole period of prehistoric occupation, as it has been 
