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It is enclosed by a wall, furnished,at intervals with conical and square towers, and extending on either side to the summit of the hills. It is approached by a double line of the sacred structures or manis, frequently noticed in the journal, and houses are scattered over the plain without the walls, on either hand. The streets are disposed without any order,. and form a most intricate labyrinth, and the houses are built contiguously, and run into each other so strangely, that from without it is difficult to determine the extent of each mansion. The number, it is said, is about a thousand ; but I should think they scarcely exceeded five hundred. They vary from one to two or three stories in height, and some are loftier. The walls are in a few instances wholly, or in part of stone, but in general they are built with large unburnt bricks : they are whitened outside with lime, but remain of their original colour inside. They are usually furnished with light wooden balconies ; the roofs are flat, and are formed of small trunks of poplar trees, above which a layer of willow shoots is laid, which is covered by a coating of straw, and that again by a bed of earth."
From this description we learn that in 1820, although the general character of the houses was the same as it is nowadays, yet the ground plan of the old town must have been very different from that of the present town. It is true that even then some houses existed outside the walls, but the town proper was enclosed by a fortified wall.. The two large bazaars which form such a conspicuous feature of the present town of Leh were not yec in existence. As popular tradition asserts, the large bazaar of. Leh was laid out by the Degrâs after the war of 1834-1842, and the new bazaar was made in 1897 by Captain Trench, British Joint Commissioner. I have been told, the Schlagintweits give a very minute description of Leh as it was in 1856, when the large bazaar was already in existence. Where this description is to be found, I have not been able to trace. A few remains of the walls of Leh aro found right in the middle of the present town, where there is also one of the ancient crooked gates. This gate, which is a little north-east of the great mosque at the end of the bazaar, marks the extent of the former town towards the south. All those houses which are found between the rNam-rgyal rtse-mo Hill and this gate, belong to the old town of Leh, of Moorcroft's time. He makes special mention only of three conspicuous buildings, viz., the royal palace, the Chamba (Byams-pa, i.e., Maitréya) and the Chenresi (sPyan-ras-gzigs, i.e., AvalokitëSvara) Monasteries. These three buildings are still in existence, and will be referred to in due course. The following conspicuous buildings of the ohl town must also have been in existence in Moorcroft's time, although he does not make any reference to them. The house Blon-po (" Minister ") is situated directly below the castle, on the south-west corner ; the dGon pa-so-ma, (New Monastery) is situated on the south-eastern corner of the same castle. It is the scene of the devil-dances which were witnessed by Moorcroft. Both these buildings can be distinguished on Trebeck's picture of Leh. Below the dGon-pa-so-rna and the Byams-pa monasteries, is situated the m k har-chung (" the little Palace"), and exactly below the latter the ruined site of the house bXä-blon (" Prime Minister "), possibly the very same house in which Moorcroft was received in audience by
the then Prime Minister. West of the house bXä-blon we see the house To-go-ehe. The
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