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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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passed through seventeen years before. In the same way Chia-yü kuan still retains the character of
a customs station, where duty is levied on all goods passing from Turkestân into China proper by
the high road.
SECTION II.—THE WALLS OF CHIA-YÜ KUAN
That the line of wall flanking Chia-yü kuan and completing the barrier, or 'chiusa', to the
south and north-west¹ is in its present state coeval with the modern gate-fortress itself, or else was
thoroughly repaired at the time of its construction, was made clear from the first by its good preser-
vation almost throughout. Yet its examination offered distinct points of interest, were it only by its
being a late pendant to the Limes wall that I had traced past the Yü-mên of Han times. My survey
of the north-western section of the wall showed that it starts from the north-east corner of the ch'êng
of Chia-yü kuan and continues unbroken along the eastern foot of the precipitous hill range through
which the stream of Hao-shan-k'ou has cut its narrow valley, as described above. The wall consists
of a well-built clay rampart 11 feet thick at its base and 12 feet high, with a parapet about 4 feet
high on its top. Adjoining this wall on the inside are watch-towers, which stand at an average dis-
tance of about 1¼ miles one from the other. The tower nearest to the Gate, of which Plate 47
reproduces the ground-plan, measures 36 feet by 33 and is built, like the wall, of layers of stamped
clay 4–5 inches in thickness.² The top of the tower bears a loopholed wall about 6 feet high, as well
as a small watch-room in one corner. A double line of foot-holes ascending one of the sides was
intended to help the watchmen, who had to climb up by a rope. A brick-built wall, of the same
height as the main wall but of only half its thickness, forms an enclosure round the tower. Small
ruined quarters within were meant to shelter the soldiers who were to provide the watch and to
guard this section of the wall. Thus each tower could serve as a rallying-point and be defended
independently in case of need, just as on the ancient Limes.
Outside the line of wall, and at distances varying from one to two furlongs from it, there rise
three detached towers of massive but modern-looking brickwork, built on spurs at the foot of the
hill range westwards. The towers, measuring about 40 feet at their base and over 30 feet high,
are surrounded by square entrenchments and obviously intended to serve as outworks guarding the
ravines which descend from the scarp of the range and could not be effectively watched otherwise.³
The wall at a distance of about a mile from the third of these outlying towers reaches the hamlet of
Huang-ts'ao-ying, which clusters behind it, at the mouth of the Hao-shan-k'ou gorge. Thence crossing
this well-cultivated ground and the little stream which irrigates it, the wall runs on for half a mile
more and is carried up the rocky spur on its left bank to a height of about 200 feet above the bottom
of the valley; beyond this the precipitous rock face becomes practically unscalable. Here the wall
ends with its flank excellently protected by nature. The rugged range, of which this spur is an off-
shoot, continues to ascend unbroken north-westwards till it attains, as the map shows, a height of
over 9,200 feet at a direct distance of about 10 miles. All along this distance, and beyond too, the
range with its very steep cliffs, absolutely bare of vegetation (Fig. 253), forms an impassable barrier
needing no defence.
It was curious to note how much care had been taken to defend also the triangular area formed
by that portion of the mouth of the Hao-shan-k'ou valley which lies outside the main wall just
described. From the point where this approaches the first farms of Huang-ts'ao-ying on the south,
a short branch wall strikes off from it at right angles to the south-west and is carried up the steep
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671
672
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