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0560 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / Page 560 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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366 KARA-SHAHR AND ITS OLD SITES CH.LXXXIII

their Ketmans. The efficient staff of village head-men which the prefect's care had provided made it easy to keep my bands at work from the bitterly cold hours of dawn until nightfall, and to have relays of men ready to relieve them as soon as the effect of long days of such strenuous work under conditions necessarily involving exposure began to tell upon them.

The photographs reproduced in Figs. 267, 268 will give some idea of the general aspect and irregular distribution of the shrines. Their total number at the main site amounted to close upon a hundred. The dimensions varied greatly, from miniature cellas of four to six feet square to massive rectangular piles of brickwork measuring up to eighty-five feet on one side. But, whatever the size, much uniformity prevailed in types of construction. Besides the simple cellas provided with a porch outside, there were many which had either passages all round or a vaulted

room behind the wall facing the entrance, thus permitting
the traditional circumambulation of the main image-group

within (Fig. 266). Domes built on the principle of the

true arch appear to have originally roofed most of the
cellas, and in a few cases still survived over the smaller

ones. A peculiar and probably late development of the

Stupa was represented by circular structures, resting on
polygonal bases and covered by flat domes, which in their

inner chamber seemed to have afforded shelter to funeral deposits. Many such deposits in the form of urns and little wooden boxes full of calcined bones were also dug up along the foot of square towers, recalling Buddhist funeral monuments in Ladak.

That all the exposed portions of the structures had suffered from the destructive effects of rain and snow was easy to observe at the first glance. But the excavations had not proceeded far before it became certain that most of the shrines had been subjected also to a great conflagration. Since none of the numerous finds of Chinese copper coins, originally deposited as votive gifts, were later than the close of the eighth century A.D., it seemed reasonable to connect this burning with the earliest Muhammadan

invasions.   But in spite of all the destruction due to