Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 561 ページ（カラー画像）

0561	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

the abstract of his preliminary report reproduces at length.⁴ But since this story points very
significantly to some traditional folk-lore connexion between the cutting and great hidden treasures,
it seems quite possible that the former owes its origin to the operation of early treasure-seekers,
more persistent than others of whose handiwork plain signs were to be seen in abundance elsewhere.
In support of this conjecture it deserves to be mentioned that at several points in the north wall,
close to the passage through it, a number of tunnels and cavities had been burrowed into the clay
rampart from the inside, while a neighbouring attempt, at the point marked 4 in Pl. 18, had effected
a breach not merely deep down into the wall but also penetrating into the bastion in front of it.

In addition to the already mentioned outworks, at the gates, the arrangement of which is clearly Bastions of
shown by the sketch-plan in Pl. 18, the walls were defended by big circular bastions, slightly varying circum-
in dimensions, at the four corners and by rectangular bastions along the sides. There are of the vallation.
latter four each on the western and eastern faces, and six and five respectively on the north and
south. These rectangular bastions also vary in size, the largest, defending the outworks of the gates,
having a frontage of 47 feet. Outside the western and southern faces there were found in places
scanty remains of a kind of covered way, formed by a wall of stamped clay, 10 feet thick, carried
in front of both curtains and bastions. Of a fosse I was unable to trace any indications.

The way in which the drift-sand has been slowly but steadily attacking the town walls of Khara- Effect of
khoto offered occasion for observations of special interest to me in the light of those made at sites wind-
like those of Lou-lan, So-yang-ch'êng, An-hsi, where wind-erosion has found full play for its force. erosion on
As the photographs in Figs. 242, 243, 246 clearly show, the prevailing north-western winds have walls.
heaped up big dunes against the western and northern walls. Where the corners of the projecting
bastions caught them, the dunes have reached the summit of the wall, and here the corrosive action
of the wind-driven sand has not only completely carried off the parapet, but cut trough-shaped
breaches into the body of the wall, to a depth of 6 feet and more. The sand which has thus entered
the circumvallated area has been partly left on the lee side under the shelter of the western and
northern walls (Fig. 245), and partly driven across the interior until stopped by the inside of the
eastern and southern walls. Here the same breaching action is repeated (Fig. 242); but owing
to the absence inside of corners formed by bastions the position of breaches on the top of the wall
is less regular. Yet the force of wind-erosion was well marked here also, as shown by the eastern
wall having been carried off for a length of 32 feet to a depth of 6 feet.

With the massive solidity of the circumvallation and its comparatively good preservation the Destruction
utter decay and consequent emptiness of the interior of the town presented a striking contrast. within
As seen from the sketch-plan in Pl. 18 and the photographs Figs. 244, 245, the greater part of the walls.
area appeared as a desolate waste with only a few ruined structures rising above the level expanse of
decomposed clay and small debris, while the outlines of other buildings could be traced only with
difficulty by low remnants of walls here and there, stumps left of wooden posts, or by foundations
and floors of hard bricks. Standing on the height of the walls it was possible to make out certain

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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

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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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