Sec. iv] THE PASS OF NANDANA AND ITS RUINS 39
narrow rocky crest in the south-west ( see Plan 4) . Along its total length of more than 300 yards the wall was very massively built with large uncut slabs of sandstone quarried on the spot. But, owing to the steepness of the slope, the foundations have given way over most of its length, bringing down the wall into confused masses of debris. But of the several semicircular bastions still traceable two towards the western extremity of the ridge have stood their ground in great strength ( Fig. 11) . The sloping walls are built with large slabs of dressed stone set in regular courses, and bear a look of considerable antiquity, later repairs being easily distinguished by their inferior masonry. The upper of these two bastions, built on a very steep rocky slope, still rises to a height of 27 feet on its slanting face. The one below lies close to where the present road passes the line of wall and evidently was meant to guard the gate. The slopes below the top of the ridge and within the defences are covered with the debris of rough stone walls, the remains of dwellings built wherever there was room left. Between them passes the road across a small saddle of the ridge.
The southern face of the ridge is for the most part lined by cliffs so precipitous as scarcely to need defences. Where the road descends from the saddle just referred to, the gap left between the unscalable cliffs below the westernmost end of the top and an equally steep spur projecting from below the ruined mosque to be presently mentioned, remains of a wall closing the approach are just traceable for about 100 yards. Thence the road runs down in zigzags to a small plateau, covered with the debris and foundation walls of decayed dwellings. This is known as Kainthi, and lies about 250 feet below the highest part of the ridge. Some 120 yards to the east of it the road passes on a lower level a very massively built semicircular bastion evidently meant to guard an outer gate. It rises to a height of 29 feet on its sloping face, and is built with dressed sandstone blocks measuring on the average 25 inches in length and 10 inches in height, carefully set in courses. Above it the remains of a much decayed line of wall ascending to the foot of precipitous cliffs below the ruined mosque can just be made out. Thence the road runs down very steeply to the point where the two spring-fed streams descending in the gorges on either side of the ridge unite at the valley bottom, some 500 feet below the top ( Plan 3 ) . The rivulet formed by them drives some mills, and passing the houses of `old Bâghanwâla' runs for half a mile in a picturesque narrow valley lined by luxuriant fruit gardens. Then it is caught at its mouth in small canals to carry its life-giving waters to the orchards and fields of the large village of Bâghânwala.
The remains on the narrow but fairly level top of the ridge ( Fig. 7) comprise the ruins of a Hindu temple, a mosque close to the south-west of it, and a very massive but much injured pile of uncertain character built on what forms a kind of
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