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

beyond the last shaft a shallow surface channel runs on to a patch of grass-
covered ground, part of the terrace it was meant to irrigate. On the opposite
(western) side of the road, which here runs along a small but distinct ridge
rising up to 134 feet above sea-level, the continuation of the same qanāt can
be traced in the shape of a straight line of hollows marking shafts, or where the
rock crust covering the underground channel between them has fallen in. This
line, about 180 feet in length, ends at the head of a ravine (Fig. 87) lined with
eroded slabs of rock and draining into the nullah below.
Descending into the nullah to the south-west and crossing the drainage bed at its
bottom, I found small terraces rising between deeply eroded small ravines and
covered with low remains of walls built with roughly cut stones in regular
courses but without mortar. These terraces extend for about 300 yards from
north to south and are obviously 'witnesses' marking the original ground level,
which has been preserved there by the protection the ruined structures above
it afforded. The fragments of turquoise-blue pottery with low relief decoration
picked up among these decayed walls resembled those common at Sīrāf and
suggested occupation in early Muhammadan or possibly Sasanian times.⁹ Ero-
sion around these terraces had obviously been facilitated by the absence within
the wide nullah of the overlying cretaceous rock which forms the surface on the
flanking plateaux. This had evidently become denuded at some earlier period,
thus permitting of cultivation on some patches of ground within the depression.
In a broad bay on the western side of the nullah, about 300 yards to the north
of the ruins just noted and not far from the series of qanāts first observed, there
rises a curious tower-like structure (Fig. 88) known as Chāb-buland ('the high
well'). At first sight this was rather puzzling; but close examination soon
showed that the lower portion of the structure, for a height of about 9 feet, con-
sists of the rough stonework forming the lining of a circular well, with an outside
diameter of about 17 feet. This had once been below the ground, but had been
laid bare by erosion of the surrounding soil. That this erosion had proceeded even
farther was shown by the small mound, about 4 feet high, on which the well
foundation now rises. On top of the thick masonry that once lined the top of the
well rises a circular wall about 6 feet high and measuring approximately 10 feet
in diameter, which probably enclosed the well above ground. The interior of the
well is filled with earth and rubble. From the top of the masonry which lined the
well a hard earthen ramp leads down on the south side to the present ground
level. This obviously represents the slope, probably once roughly paved or