National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

from the marshy lake Avullu-köl (eastern part of lower Tarim) and in the sands
between there and Yardang-bulaq he had come across a hill covered with "a thou-
sand" coffins. Now the Turki expressions "one thousand" and "ten thousand" are
not to be taken literally — numbers are very seldom definite among the Turks —
they are only meant to express a large amount. The wooden coffins, he said, were
piled on top of one another, and their interior was richly carved and painted. The
well-preserved corpses were dressed in silk, and there was also some kind of writings
on ornamented paper. He was absolutely sure of his statement as to the location of
this marvellous burial place: 10 km. south of the Qum-darya at the height of Yar-
dang-bulaq.

We certainly had considerable doubts about his description of the site and its con-
tents, or, more correctly, we made the usual allowances for the fancies of the Turkish
mind. Afterwards, indeed, it was easy to recognize how Ördek mixed his fantastic
tale with details that he had noticed and remembered from Lou-lan. We were too
credulous, however, in believing his statement as to the situation of the place, we
only doubted his ability to trace it after so many years. Otherwise the fanciful
description sounded inviting, especially as no explorer had ever ventured into exactly
that region.

Ördek also talked about ruins of watch-towers which he had located, and both
Dr. Hedin and I got an impression that the facts hidden behind Ördek's tales,
when properly examined, might help to widen our knowledge of the Lou-lan civi-
lization and, maybe, also clear up some questions about the course of the ancient
Silk Road, the latter problem being of special importance as Dr. Hedin had long
hoped to be able to survey the possibility of reviving the Silk Road for motor traf-
fic, and had in fact made it one of the tasks of this last expedition.

I was therefore told off to locate and survey the ancient remains known to
Ördek. He was to act as guide. Fortunately, Mr. Georg Söderbom was sent with
me on this special tour, and as always he proved to be of invaluable assistance not
only in making all the practical arrangements, as will be seen from the following
account.

On April 29th 1934 Söderbom and I started from the main camp of the expedi-
tion, which was situated near the easternmost extremity of the Charchaq hills on
the left shore of Qum-darya and about 19 km. W. of Yardang-bulaq, on our search
for Ördek's sites. We sailed down Qum-darya to a point about 4 km. below
Yardang-bulaq which became our camp B 61. The spot was selected by Ördek as
a suitable starting-point for his reconnaissance. His searches were much hampered
by severe sandstorms, and during those days on which I went with him or recon-
noitred alone to the south of Qum-darya I obtained a very vivid impression of the
dull monotony of the sand dunes and confusing maze of yardangs and dead tama-
risk mounds. The region is far from easily investigated. On these tours I picked up
small bronze and flint objects of various kinds as well as some potsherds, and

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