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

No burial cairns were recognized by us on such portions of the slopes as we
were able to examine; but such could not have been easily distinguished from the
debris heaps of decayed dwellings which were scattered in plenty over easier
ground within the necropolis area. It might also be assumed, perhaps, that the
grottoes were occupied by the poorer population of the port.

At the entrance of the gorge known as Tang-i-Līr and made conspicuous by a
large bōr tree growing there (Fig. 72), two massive towers mark the places
where the water, once conducted on either side of the gorge in aqueducts and short
tunnels, was discharged to drive millstones (Fig. 74). The drop of 20 feet or so
to the foot of these towers suggests that the available volume of water was limited.
The remains of walls over which the conduits were carried could be traced for
some distance up the gorge, which higher up has been filled in places by large
masses of fallen rock. Whether Muqaddasī's and Yāqūt's mention of a conduit
supplying Sīrāf with fresh water refers to this aqueduct or to a small canal trace-
able in the Kunārak valley, it is impossible to decide. Nor could I obtain local
information as to the spring, or qanāt, from which water is likely to have once
been brought down into the Tang-i-Līr.

Half a mile from the head of the gorge, turning westwards and passing
through a maze of small eroded hillocks, we reached a broad open valley known
as Dōband-i-Tāhirī. Stretching approximately from east to west it affords good
views of the high mountains to the north, beyond which lie the valleys of Jam and
Galehdār once passed by routes feeding the trade of Sīrāf. I was told by our
local guide of ruins to be seen on those thinly wooded heights and of springs to
which they owe their name of Kōb-i-baft-chāb. It is possible that the custom
mentioned by the Arab geographer Ibn Rosteh (ninth century A.D.) of the
people of Sīrāf seeking the mountains during the hot season⁸ refers to these
heights, or else to Jam. Moving for about a mile along the Dōband valley, which
along its flat bottom, about half a mile wide, contains a good deal of arable land,
at present uncultivated, I came near the middle upon scattered groups of old
remains marked by decayed walls, as seen in the ruined area of Sīrāf. Plentiful
pottery debris identical with that of Sīrāf strews the ground here and farther
west beyond a small ravine. This was said to receive water higher up from a
perennial fresh spring passed on the route leading to Jam. This statement was
borne out by the ruined tower of a water-mill to be seen together with the traces
of a small aqueduct where a narrow valley debouches from the foot-hills. The
valley of Dōband could well have served as a place where the animals of the
caravans which carried goods to and from Sīrāf might be rested, and the remains
above referred to may, perhaps, be those of sarais.