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0094 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 / Page 94 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000234
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Notwithstanding some European articles of furniture of
doubtful taste which had already found their way to this
apartment, the whole showed clearly the prevalence of Central-
Asian manufacture. Carpets from Yarkand, Chinese silks
and gaily-coloured prints from Kashgar could indeed make
their way to Hunza far more easily over the Sarikol passes
than Indian articles before the opening of the Gilgit route.
Even now the latter is open to trade for a far shorter period
than the passes from the North.

Returning from my visit to this interesting place I noticed
several small mosques constructed of wood, and showing on
their beams and posts a good deal of effective carving.
Rougher in execution than old Kashmir woodwork, it yet
displayed, just like the latter, decorative elements of a
distinctly early Indian type, e.g., the double 'Chaitya'
ornament, the Sacred Wheel, the Svastika. The work I
saw was said to be of comparatively recent date, which
makes the survival of these patterns borrowed from the
South so much the more curious.

My march on June 21st looked short on the map, but
the accounts I had collected of it prepared me for its
difficulties. Soon after passing, about two miles above
Baltit, the picturesque fort-village of Altit, the valley con-
tracts to a gorge of rugged rocks, almost without a trace of
vegetation. A narrow path winds along the cliffs, sometimes
close by the swollen river, sometimes several hundred feet
above it. A small alluvial plateau, reached some four miles
beyond, bears the little village of Muhammadabad. But the
track leads far below over the sandy bed of the river. This
bed indeed forms the easiest route up the valley, and only
when its water is low in the winter can ponies be brought up
or down. The frequent crossing of the river which this winter
route necessitates is altogether impossible when the snow on
the mountains has once begun to melt.

Accordingly a high rugged spur had to be climbed and the