dation, and its circumference was 55 feet at the
base and only 28 feet at the summit. The lower portion of the tower, as
seen through powerful glasses, seemed very much corroded, and it will not
be long before it collapses. There are various theories regarding this
tower, which now rises directly above the flat desert. It is said by some
to be one of a number of isolated watch towers, but this, I think, is
incorrect.

[Illustration: The Citadel of Zaidan, the Great City.]

According to Major Sykes, who quotes from the Seljuk history: "Every
three hundred paces a pillar twice the height of a man was built and two
_minars_ between Gurz and Fahraj, one forty _gaz_ high, the other
twenty-five, and _under_ each _minar_ a caravanserai and a tank." By the
word "under" the historian evidently meant directly underneath the
tower--which was the customary way of constructing such buildings. The
_minars_ seldom rose from the ground, but were and are generally
constructed on the roofs of buildings. A proof that this was the case in
this particular instance was that when Goldsmid visited it in 1872, he
stated that it "was built on a square foundation."

The caravanserai underneath this tower and the tank are evidently buried
by the sand, as is the case with a great portion of the City of Zaidan.
That there is underneath the sand a city connecting the southern portion
of Zaidan--still partly above ground--with the northern portion of
Zaidan, and that this _minar_ rises above buried habitations, there can
be little doubt, for all along the several miles of intervening sandy
stretch the earth is covered with debris, ruins and fragments of tiles,
bricks, &c., &c., showing the remains of a great city.

As we went along, leaving the pillar to the north and steering south-east
for the main ruins of Zaidan, we saw close by on the north a very large
structure forming the section of a cone--the lower portion buried in sand
and the upper portion having collapsed,--which a Sistani who accompanied
us said was an ancient ice-house. This theory may be correct, for it is
probable that the climate of Sistan may have greatly changed; but it is
also possible that the structure may have been a large flour-mill, for to
this day mills are built in Persia on similar exterior lines to the
ice-houses. Structures of the same kind are also to be observed as far
south as Kala-i-Fath, the southern terminus of the great city.

No ice to speak of can be collec