IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Across Asia : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
C. G. MANNERHEIM
,duly rith. To-day I made an excursion to a ruin on the road from Korla to Qarashahr, about
Qarashahr. 10 miles from the latter. We passed the Khaidik gol in a barge about 2/3 of a mile east of the Sart bazaar. Here the river is not more than about 1/4. of a mile wide. The fairly lively traffic is maintained by several ferries worked by Kalmuks and Dungans. The current is slow and the greatest depth is 7 feet. On the other side of the river we rode through Hosjuju mähällä, a village inhabited mostly by Dungans from Sinin. They seem to use reeds as a building material. A good many outhouses are built of reeds standing on end and held together by a layer of clay laid on on both sides. The plain across which the road leads, contains much salt and is porous, but the grass is much better than to the N of Qarashahr. We passed a lonely farm on the right.
The very considerable earthen wall of the ruin is visible a mile or two before you reach it. It lies on the left of the road at a distance of about a mile. Close to it we passed the yurts of some Kalmuks, engaged in tilling the land. The wall is well preserved and is continuous with clear projections in the middle of two of the walls. On one of the others the projection is indistinct and on the fourth it is invisible. It is about 20-3o feet high and measures about 55 feet in width at the base. A rampart built on top of it is only visible
in places. The double lines along the wall indicate
the places where the rampart has remained intact. At
//9OydJ
Sao°,' /1o° its highest points it attains a height of i8 feet. In the
north corner of the ruin there is a mound of earth of
considerable size that looks as if it were the ruins of a separate building. There are two other mounds in the middle of the space, the NE one being connected with the nearest wall by the remains of a wall-like eminence running at a slight angle. Here and there, especially on the middle mounds and along the SW and NE walls, we found a few fragments of clay vessels.
quality they seem to be like those I had picked up in other places. There are signs of
excavations in the mounds in the middle and in the northern corner of the ruin. From the southern corner at an angle of 336° and 325° I could see two considerable mounds of earth at a distance of half a mile. The wall and rampart appear to have been built of clay, or rather, of earth. The holes in the rampart are obviously the work of the wind.
Just across the road, at the place where we reached it this time, there is a considerable mound of earth, about 4.0 X 200 feet in size. It is surrounded by a wall, forming approximately a square, measuring 2-30o paces along each side. The large ruin is seen from this at an angle of 295°. There are distinct signs of digging, but not a single piece of bone nor a fragment of a clay vessel.
July i2th. I called on the local official to-day, a lively septuagenarian. For over 4.0 years he has
Qarashahr. held various posts in the province of Sinkiang. The life of a Chinese official is curious. He sees little beyond the clay walls of his yamen. He never ventures outside the door without a crowd of brightly clad servants, mounted and on foot, in a carriage (higher officials
/2OOyad
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