国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

there were five openings like big niches, and to these corresponded a series of vaulted passages on Con-
the south-east which, however, were almost completely filled with débris. Huge masses of fallen struction
brick masonry made the examination of the interior altogether very difficult. It was only after pile.
experimental clearing in certain parts and continued study that it became possible to recover the
plan of the structure in its basement story, as presented in Plate 50. The outer walls, which on the
south-east face, where their foot is less encumbered by fallen masses of débris, still rise to a height
of 24 feet, have everywhere a distinct slant inwards. They are built of bricks, 18″ × 8″ × 4″ in
size and fairly hard, some being partially burned. The wall facing south-east has a thickness of
6 feet 4 inches, while the longer one to the south-west measures in its unbroken portion fully 7 feet
across. The whole structure appears to have formed at its base a rectangle of 62 feet by 53 outside.
The basement story, which alone is still partially standing, contains within a central vaulted hall,
about 11 feet wide and close on 40 feet long, running from south-west to north-east and evidently
once provided with an entrance from the former side. On each of the long sides of this hall lie five
narrow chambers, measuring about 15 feet in length and 4 feet 2 inches across. They are vaulted
at a height which could not be determined exactly, as the floor could nowhere be reached through
the heavy débris within the available time. Vaulted openings, with their top some 3 feet below
the line from which the vaults of the side-chambers spring, give access to them through the walls,
4 feet thick, of the central hall. On the opposite narrow side these chambers received light and
ventilation from loopholes cut through the outer wall near the top of the vaulting.
Obviously a basement so massively constructed was capable of bearing a high and equally solid Keep for
superstructure. But of this only a small portion has survived on the north-west, rising to a height guarding
of some 10 feet above the masonry that covers the vaults of the side-chambers. The latter are routes.
likely to have been useful for stores, etc., while the central hall evidently provided a cool place of
the present kemer type for those who garrisoned this big tower or keep; for as such it was obviously
meant to serve. The fact that the south-east and north-east walls of the fort are only continuations
of the corresponding walls of the keep iii suggests that this was constructed earlier and by itself.
The pile rises to a considerable height over the flat ground stretching away, unbroken by any surface
features, to the terminal lake-bed and the gravel glacis of the Kuruk-tāgh; even in its present
ruined state it offers a very distant outlook. It was thus well adapted for guarding routes which
give access from that side to the oases of Lukchun or Kara-khōja, the ancient Kao-ch'ang. Not far
off to the east of the site passes a route leading from Lukchun to Singer, a tiny but strategically
important oasis in the western Kuruk-tāgh (see Map No. 55. D. 2), from which a number of tracks
radiate towards the lower Tārim, the ancient Lou-lan area, and Kara-shahr.ᵃ
This fact adequately explains why the small stronghold may have originally been placed here. Later
The fort is likely to have been added to it later to afford protection to those who cultivated the walled
neighbouring area. The outer walled enclosure of irregular shape adjoining the fort to the north- enclosures.
east manifestly represents a still later enlargement, and its walls are of distinctly inferior strength.
That there must at one time have existed around the fort and watch-station a settlement of such
size as only cultivation of the surrounding ground could account for appears to me clearly indicated
by the badly decayed remains of a much larger rectangular circumvallation built of stamped clay,

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