This photograph of the remains of an earthen mound at Pai Fasad, near Samarkand (Uzbekistan), is from the archeological part of Turkestan Album. The six-volume photographic survey was produced in 1871-72 under the patronage of General Konstantin P. von Kaufman, the first governor-general (1867-82) of Turkestan, as the Russian Empire’s Central Asian territories were called. The album devotes special attention to Samarkand’s architectural heritage. The mound shown here is possibly a remnant of one of the fortresses built by Sogdian kings before the Arab conquest at the turn of the 8th century. Such fortifications not only defended the approaches to Samarkand, or Maracanda, as it was then called, they also provided protection for the Silk Road caravans from China. Mounds (Burial); Photographic surveys; Turkic peoples