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0550 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / 550 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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362   GLIMPSES OF TURFAN RUINS CH. LXXXII

occasional glass windows, and the like, which I found in the houses of the hospitable Begs, I might almost imagine myself on the very edge of what I call ` Demi-Europe.' It all helped to explain that close connection in early times with what is now Russian Turkestan which the antiquities from Turfan ruins attest.

During the week spent at the oasis of Turfan proper most of my time was claimed by the remarkable ruined site usually known as Yar-khoto, which marks the capital of Turfan down to T'ang times. Just beyond the western edge of the present cultivation there rises between two deep-cut broad ravines, drained by spring-fed streams, a long and narrow clay terrace which nature itself has designed for a strong position. From the point of junction of the two ` Yars,' which have given the place its modern Turki name as well as its old Chinese designation ` Chiaoho,' ` between the streams,' to where a broad cross ravine cuts off the north end of the terrace, the length of the terrace is a little over a mile. Its width is everywhere under a quarter of a mile.

The island-like area thus formed rises with precipitous cliffs of clay more than a hundred feet above the bottom of the flanking ravines, and is covered for about three-fourths of its length with closely packed ruins. Of the strange appearance of the whole the photographs (Figs. 263, 264) will help to convey some impression. The plateau is ascended by a steep ramp from the south. Thereupon caves and walls cut out from the live clay strike the eye on all sides in what at first seems utter confusion. Only gradually can narrow passages between them be made out, all alike leading towards two open spaces which traverse longitudinally most of the ruined area, and which had served as its chief streets.

It was, indeed, a dead town that lay spread out before me. But, alas ! in spite of all the desolation it was only too evident how sadly its ruins lacked that protection which only a great natural catastrophe, as at Pompeii, or the isolation of the desert can assure to the relics of a life that has long been extinct. There was no drift sand here to cover up what objects might have escaped removal after