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0137 Across Asia : vol.1
Across Asia : vol.1 / Page 137 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000221
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RECORDS OF THE JOURNEY

and rise high above the level of the land, this gravel can hardly have been brought down from the mountains. It is curious that on a closer examination you do not find any stones that are actually green. The toghraq disappears from these sandy knolls to the west of the road. The latter makes a bend round the foot of an outrunner of the southern mountains. On its slope we passed a small ruin with remains of 3 walls on the summit of a mound of sand 36 x 24 feet at the base. The walls are 6 x4. feet long and look like the remains of a small tower or a large landmark. Immediately afterwards we had on the left a small marsh »Karys» with a thick layer of salt on the surface. On the edge of the marsh we came again to the Ja darya, the southern bank of which is marshy in places. For a time the road goes along the steep right bank of the river. Half-an-hour after leaving the river the road shakes off another much more unpleasant companion, the sandy hillocks with their toghraq. Their line takes a rather more NW direction and the road now proceeds over an open plain with a slight rise. The southern mountain draws nearer and nearer to the road until at a distance of no more than about 1/3 of a mile the mountains take a more southerly course and the whole valley, including the northern mountain ridge, seems to wheel to the SW. The plain slopes gradually in a westerly direction. We passed a very modest »metchet» in the desolate sandy plain and a little later once more crossed the Ja darya that comes from the SSW with very little water here. The bed of the river is I20-15o fathoms broad at this point and makes numerous bends. On the other side of the river the sand is heavier and rolls in a SSW—NNE direction. Three-quarters of an hour from the river we again passed a small ruin, two parallel hillocks, one of which had distinct traces of a large wall with several divisions into small rooms. Some fragments of clay vessels and bits of bones could be seen on the surface. In two places there were signs of recent excavations (not deep), possibly made with a view to using the earth as a fertiliser. Its solitary position, near the river and slightly above the rest of the ground, indicates that there was once a small citadel here. — The northern chain of mountains rises in front of us and now seems to go from NNE to SSW. At its foot a long line of villages with trees appears, divided into two main groups. Between them lie the bazaar and the official residence of the Chinese mandarin with some well-kept Chinese buildings. — As it was still long before sunset and still longer before dinner would be ready, I resolved to ride out at once to the ruins of what the population claims to be an ancient city SW of the village.

The road to the ruins leads through the SW group of villages — the main group. Just behind the bazaar it descends the steep bank of a very large river bed, dry at present and covered with pebbles, the Qizil, which flows from a large cleft in the mountains in the north. A few miles from the mountains the river bed, about I 1/2 miles wide, divides into two arms that encircle a strip of land about a mile wide, on the northern point of which there is a small ruin with remains of walls. No objects of interest are to be seen, nor have any been found by the local population. The western group of Kelpin begins as soon as you have crossed the other arm of the river. The neat houses of this main section, surrounded by trees, are arranged in several groups with open fields, mazars etc. between

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February 13th. Kelpin village.