File:Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 34 December 1886 to May 1887 (1887) (14596659017).jpg

Identifier: harpersnew72various (find matches)
Title: Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 34 December 1886 to May 1887
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: various
Subjects:
Publisher: New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers
Contributing Library: Brigham Young University-Idaho, David O. McKay Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University-Idaho

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nter-quarters for the camphad to be thought of. It was arrangedthat the main body of the camp shouldmove eastward to the Marghab, whileSir Peter Lumsden, with a light camp,struck away in a northeast direction tovisit Penjdeli. This took us across thedistrict of Badghis, once a province ofthe old kingdom of Ariana, to theKuslik, the principal tributary of theMurghab. We descended that streamto Ak Tapa and Pul-i-Khisti, or thebridge of bricks. It was here thatthe fight took place afterward betweenthe Afghans and the Russians at the endof March; it is now generally spoken ofas Penjdeh, but the old remains of thatplace are in reality about six miles to thesouth, on the Murghab. Ak Tapa meansthe white mound, from a large lieaped-up mass of earth which is there; thesemounds are a peculiarity of the sites ofold cities in this part of the world, andthere is some difficulty in determiningtheir original purpose. There is nodoubt but they are old, and it has beensuggested that they were the high
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SARIK TURKOMAN WOMAN. places on which the Guebres placed theirfire altars. One theory is that they weretombs. The most probable explanation isthat they were heaped to form strongplaces of defense, and were the citadelsof a primitive period. Scattered roundthese mounds are lower heaps and ridgesmarking the remains of the town. Thebuilding material in this part of the worldwas, as it is to-day, principally mud, orsun-dried brick, which is the same; andearth heaps are all that is now to be seenof the remains of cities. There are no 604 HARPERS NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. ancient temples Avhicli tell their talesof the past, such as those which are to beseen in Greece, Egypt, or India. Thestructures were of dust, and into dust theyhave returned. Ak Tapa was the largestof the mounds wliicli we saw, and theground round it is filled with fragmentsof pottery, showing that a town had ex-isted at some far back date. If the Tapawas a defensive work, its great size wouldshow that the strategic importanc

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