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0021	Serindia : vol.3
セリンディア : vol.3

which by their position along the north foot of the Nan-shan and on the line of the great route Position of
leading westwards facilitated Chinese commercial and political expansion into the Tārim Basin.¹⁴ Kua-chou
Without the provisions, etc., thus available locally as far as Tun-huang, the Chinese missions, on western
caravans, and military expeditions would have found it still more difficult than it was to prepare for, high road.
and safely overcome, the formidable obstacles presented to their progress by the sand and salt wastes
of the Lop Desert. Kua-chou was, no doubt, a valuable link in this chain of oases which lay behind,
and were sheltered by, the Emperor Wu-ti's extension of the Great Wall. But its local importance
is likely to have considerably increased when the Chinese occupation of Hāmi in A.D. 73 opened up
a new route towards the Western Regions.¹⁵

This route, though longer than that through Lou-lan or 'the new northern Route', crossing as yet Importance
unexplored wastes of the westernmost Pei-shan, avoided the worst of their physical difficulties, want of route
of water, and has for this reason, no doubt, remained to the present day by far the most frequented from An-hsi
and important of all routes connecting Chinese Turkestān with Kan-su.¹⁶ It is by following this to Hāmi.
route which connects An-hsi with Hāmi that the distance to be covered across desert ground bare of
local resources is most reduced and an oasis of considerable size reached soonest. Hāmi is admirably
adapted by nature to form a bridge-head, as it were, for the safe crossing of the Pei-shan, and a glance
at the general map shows that by starting for it direct from An-hsi instead of via Tun-huang traffic
coming from the side of China must effect a considerable saving in distance. This explains the con-
tinued use down to our day of the An-hsi–Hāmi route as the main line of communication across the
'Gobi' separating China and Central Asia, and also the special importance which old Kua-chou must
have claimed as its starting-point, notwithstanding the local limitations. Nor should another con-
sideration be forgotten. This An-hsi–Hāmi route finds its direct continuation southwards in a well-
known and much-frequented route, which leads across the Nan-shan ranges by easy passes to the
plateaus of Tsaidam, and thence over the Tibetan highlands straight to Lhassa.¹⁷ Thus An-hsi lies
on the most direct line of communication connecting Mongolia with Tibet, and may on this account,
like Tun-huang in earlier times, lay claim to be one of the great cross-roads of Asia.

Section II.—OLD REMAINS NEAR AN-HSI AND HSÜAN-TSANG'S
YÜ-MÉN KUAN

In view of the importance thus attaching to the tract of old Kua-chou, I feel doubly glad that Search for
my enforced stay at An-hsi allowed time for interesting archaeological observations in the neighbour- traces of
hood. My previous explorations had enabled me to trace the line of the ancient Chinese Limes to Han Limes.
within about 35 miles west of An-hsi,¹ and left practically no doubt that it must have continued past
it eastwards. Local information gave no clue to any remains of it. Some large towers, which on
the march from Kua-chou-k'ou we had sighted far away to the west, were reported by Surveyor
Rām Singh, whom I sent on a reconnaissance tour in that direction, to be of recent origin.² But on
his way to the western edge of An-hsi cultivation he had come across two ruined towers on waste

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