National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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| 0093 |
Explorations in Turkestan : Expedition of 1904 : vol.2 |
Captions
| [Photo] 471 |
A Fortress in the Alai Valley on the Ancient Route from Bactra to Kashgar. |
Citation Information
OCR Text
battered gate and wall that crosses its defile beside a ruined castle. One day from Irkeshtam leads over the Taun Murun, its last and highest pass, but only 11,200 feet in elevation, easily crossed, and down into the Alai valley, famous for its pasture. From there on for 100 miles this valley opens out a restful stretch for the caravan. In it there is still a ruined fortress, the relatively modern structure at Daraut Kurgan, where a trail branches off into Fergana. Leaving the Alai valley, it continues along the Kizil Su through Karategin, as a well-engineered way where engineering was needed, but most of the way in this region is along broad, smooth terraces. The next ruined fortress is met with at Haui. Others may have been obliterated, but, as with the Alai valley, the valley of Karategin is so isolated, except for the route in question, that it is not likely they had to fortify its caravansaries. From there we enter the lands of ancient Bactria and find the trail worn sometimes 40 feet into loess steppes leading down to old Hissar. What kind of trail it is from Hissar to Bactra must be judged from maps, as I did not follow over that part. On a large-scale Russian map it follows south along the flat bottom of a valley to the Oxus, and beyond the ferry it lies in open country a few miles to the end.
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