New-York tribune., 1908-07-12

perched half way up; top, fortress. 1t seems
from a distance alive as any other town. But as
YOU advance the details sharpen. and you see in
It's strange chaos broken pillars, ruined arches.
cracked demes. fallen walls, fragments OF stone
and suddenly you are face to face with emptiness
and loneliness before one of those curious dead
cities departed glor1es of Eastern Persia.
Discriminating from your boat and gaining the
shore on tRs back Of your oarsnan you pick your
way through scattered stones to q palace, OF which
the great gate is still standing Passing through
one monumental room. you in the midst of an
immense court The high walls surrounding 1t are
cut into large bays, recalling the boxes OF the
Ror,an circus Enormous pillars, 10 metres high
and metres thick, of which only the bases re-
main seem to have formed a sort OF arch OF tr1-
u,nnb EXCEPT for the walls and the gates. which
h,,-. rass+e6 the successive fures Of time and OF
conquest all that remains of the palace is DUST
and ruin.
From the corner of this court way leads TO
sort of plateau where there are many sepulchres
like those of the Tibetans, about one metre Nigh
made of unornamented stone Ehese tombs. like
the famous towers of silence" in India are open
IN the sky showing that the people left their dead
to the action of the sun and the birds
IT s when mount to the fortress, at the sum-
NIT of the city, that the native guide tells you the
1egend of the place There is little platform sur
rounded by plain stone wall, where. the worship
fuI SeYstanese insist, the footprints of the
Prophet All, to whom all the desolat!on is due. 1t
seems that Of the princes. certain Mir-Cger.
audscously tried to oppose the annual lnundatlon
of the land. The river defed him. He and the
liver had a tussIe Mir-Ofgar made dkes, but
could not check the forces of nature When he died
and laid out in his tomb in the highest part OF
the city the river rose IN fury, gained the hill
threw over his tomb and snatched the body OF the
presumptuous prince Mahomet sent the Prophet
Ali to finally wind up the chasusement of the peo-
pie Since the waters of the river were salty
single spring made life possible in the island. The
prophet put his foot in the spring. and the water
ceased to flow. Thus the city made desolate
and in the course of time has become no more
than a place for pilgrimages
In point of fact. pilgrimages made every new
year, and thousands of sheep are sacrificed to a
saint IN small tomb the plateau OF the for
tress. The shrine, mosque without a cupola- IN
closes two nonoliths. One represents. apparently
a female form. which, however has been nutilated
at some unknown period. The other, her side is
shorter but larger; also more indefinite The tomb.
high up emnence. is surrounded by votive
offerings of worshippers, garments and dolls, from
women praying to have children. On the walls of
the mosque are inscriptions recalling an invasion
OF the Turcomans, ten centuries ago. All around
the ground Is black with dried blood.
These are the main features OF the dead city
the palace, the tombs, the fortress. Whether the
abandonment was made because ss the legend
suggests. there water. whether a plague
carried off the people Of the city or whether some
conqueror devastated it is unknown. The province
of Seistan has been. from the most remote times.
the centre OF bloody battles, has been swept by
conQuerors since the days of Alexander the Great,
and has seen its marvellous cities destroyed by
one especially IN the thirteenth fourteenth CEN
turies, by the great floods OF humanity, headed by
Tameriane. This part of Persia tustihes it's name.
.The Land of Ruins
This particular ruin of Koh-i-kouadja, viewed
from an overlooking Cliff LIS food for the irnagina-
ton Of those who fred by cities "one with
Nineveh and Tyre" The silent ruins look like r.
country of the moon. From the fragments of
broken walls briste immobile peaks From the
FACADE OF the empty palace gaze the blank eyes of
windows. from which. perhaps. there leaned once.
In the light of this moon that shines there
now. the forms OF copper ooored girls. Here. In
innsr court still defined. rises the whit, dome
of a cupola; there. at the edge OF the clin In the
profile of the Fortress broken toothsd: further on
are fragments Of roads and highways, leading no.
where, and all this evidence OF life which must
have been warm and Injurious seems TO have been
wiped out at a single blow by the blind rage OF