IIIFカラー高解像度
国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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| IIIFカラー高解像度 |
| Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 | |
| 中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.1 |
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引用情報
544 AN ANCIENT FRONTIER CH. XLIX
cohesion in spite of the coarse material full of gravel and
small stones. The reed bundles, of about the same
thickness, were strongly tied, and with their neatly cut
stacks and careful anchoring resembled rows of fascines.
The average thickness of the wall was between eight and
nine feet.
The wall farther east had become eroded in many
places. Yet the remnants of the reed layers could be
traced in the sandy, scrub-covered depression to within a
quarter of a mile of the next tower. This proved of
similar construction to the last, though more injured. A
special feature here were vertical pieces of Toghrak set
into the brickwork to strengthen the corners, and held at
short intervals by ropes of twisted reeds which again were
embedded in the masonry. The whole, like the materials
used in the wall, seemed to tell plainly how little the
surrounding physical conditions and the resources of this
desert ground had changed since the line of towers was
erected. Incidentally light was thrown on the purpose of
the latter when I noticed on the southern face a line of
rough footholds spared from the masonry, as if to assist a
person climbing to the top by means of a rope. Mani-
festly the small space on the top was meant to be occupied
by a man or two for watching and signalling.
Beyond this tower the continuation of the wall seemed
to be lost completely. Crossing the bare gravel plateau to
the north-east, we then regained the caravan track leading
eastwards in the direction of the next tower which now
came in view far away. We had followed the track for
scarcely more than a mile when the Surveyor's keen eye
caught a slight swelling of the gravel soil running parallel
to the route, and half-petrified reeds cropping out from its
side and top. By merely scraping the surface I made sure
that we were moving once more by the line of the old wall,
the reeds clearly belonging to the foot layers of a portion
now almost completely eroded.
Farther on the almost imperceptible swelling grew into
a perfectly straight ridge, six to eight feet high, where the
extant wall lay covered under heaped-up gravel and drift
sand. At a point about three miles distant from the last
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