226 KURGANS OF THE MERV OASIS. 
from the first of June to the end of September, Merv suffers under almost tropical 
heat, the thermometer day after day rising to 100° F. or more in the shade. The 
ground becomes so hot that one can scarcely touch it, and to lie upon it is tor- 
ture. At even a slight elevation, however, the radiation from the ground is robbed 
of its effect, and the wind, whose evaporating power brings coolness and comfort 
so quickly in this dry atmosphere, has opportunity to play. An elevation of only 
10 feet makes a great difference, and at a height of from 30 to 60 feet the heat is 
quite bearable. The rulers, it would seem, lived in comfort on the tops of their 
hills, while down below in the heat and dust labored the common people. the ruins 
of whose small dwellings can be seen as little heaps clustering at the foot of the 
great kurgans, or stretched in lines along the courses of the canals. 
One kurgan, more than any other, lends credence to the theory that has just 
been suggested. Churnuk Tepe (No. 28 in the table), one of the several that 
go by that name, is the smallest, the youngest, and the best preserved of all the 
kurgans of the last period. It alone shows abundant ruins of a superstructure, 
a thick-walled mud house surrounding a small courtyard. With the extreme 
elaboration that so often marks the last days of any line of development, the 
architect not only adopted the square form with the axis almost north and south, 
and the square tower projecting toward the south, but added to his design the 
touch that made the house almost bizarre, the square rooms projecting at the ends 
of the diagonals, one each to the north, south, and west, and two to the east. The 
main body of the structure consisted of a courtyard, on either side of which were 
ranged from four to six rooms. Beneath the rooms ran broad, arched passages, 
which may have been divided into apartments for storerooms or for the use of 
servants. 
AGE OF THE KURGANS. 
The dating of ruins is at best a difficult matter, and in the case of a reconnais- 
sance like the present it is well-nigh impossible. One thing, however, can be stated, 
tentatively at least. The kurgans of the highly developed type appear to belong 
to the same era as Ghiaur Kala. The basis for this statement has already been 
mentioned. The pottery, with its characteristic designs, the glazed ware, the 
glass, and the stone-ware are of identically the same sort in the old city and in 
the mounds. At Gechekran Tepe a portion of a brown glazed lamp was found, 
identical in material and apparently in form with those found so abundantly in 
what seems to have been an old shop at Ghiaur Kala. Then, again, the peculiar 
method of construction with sun-dried bricks is identical in both cases, and is 
so unusual as to be significant. The beginnings of Ghiaur Kala may date back 
to the time of some of the earlier kurgans, but its final greatness appears to have 
been coincident with the construction of the kurgans of the highly developed type. 
In this connection the old ruin of Kirk Tepe is of interest. Here, 15 miles 
north-northwest of Ghiaur Kala, we have what seems like a small imitation of that 
ancient capital. Kirk Tepe is a square inclosure, 1,000 feet on a side, with thick 
mud walls which in their present ruined state are 20 or more feet high. In the 
course of centuries they have been worn down into the form of rounded and semi- 
