Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 558 ページ（カラー画像）

0558	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

0558

Innermost Asia : vol.1

極奥アジア : vol.1

for eight days, and was interrupted only for the examination of the ruined dwellings that Afrāz-
gul succeeded in discovering at some distance eastwards. Its difficulties were considerably increased
by the innate laziness of the Mongols in their unaccustomed role as labourers, and no less by the
quarrels that our irascible 'Lāma' Māḷum managed to pick with this refractory crew. In describing
the results of our labours I shall ignore the order in which they were carried out and deal with the
remains examined in quasi-topographical order.¹

Construc-
tion of
walls. The most striking ruins of Khara-khoto are those of its circumvallation. This forms, as the
sketch-plan in Pl. 18 shows, an approximate rectangle nearly orientated. The area enclosed
measures about 466 yards on the north side and 381 yards on the west. It is thus about 50 per cent.
larger than that of the Lou-lan station,² but less than one-half that of the ruined town of So-yang-
ch'êng near Ch'iao-tzŭ.³ The walls are built of stamped clay and reinforced by a wooden framework
of which the big rafters could be traced in three rows all round the inside faces of the walls. But
in most places their position is marked only by the holes which the decayed timber has left (Fig. 248).
The walls are about 38 feet thick at the base, but show a considerable inward slope so that the
width at the top, about 30 feet from the ground, is only 12 feet. This width is, however, greatly
increased near the north-western corner (Fig. 248), where the top is crowned by the Stūpas to be
presently mentioned, with a correspondingly greater thickness at the base. In places a parapet
about one foot thick, with loopholes, still survives to a height of 5 or 6 feet. Ramps leading up
to the top of the walls can be traced at the gates and at the north-western and south-eastern
corners.

Cuttings
through
walls. Gates, 18 feet wide, lead through the western and eastern wall faces, each protected by a rect-
angular outwork built as massively as the walls themselves (Fig. 250). In addition, the walls have
been pierced at two points (1, 2 in Pl. 18) by passages which are certainly of later date. The one in
the south wall appeared to me as if made to facilitate access to the ground outside at some period
when defence had ceased to be a serious consideration. The other in the north wall (Fig. 247)
seemed needlessly large for this purpose. The fact that both are quite close by the side of a bastion
clearly militates against the theory of a breach made by a besieger. On the other hand, I found no
evidence to support the story about the cutting in the north wall heard by Colonel Kozlov, which

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
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

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 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

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
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ