ted nowadays, either in Sistan or within
a very large radius of country, and snow is seldom, almost never seen.

Near this mill or ice-house, whichever it was, another high building in
ruins was to be observed, but I could not afford the time to deviate from
my route and inspect it. It appeared like a watch-tower, and was not
dissimilar to two other round towers we had seen before on the
south,--very likely they were all outer fire-signalling stations, so
common all over Asia.

[Illustration: The Zaidan West Towers and Modern Village.]

After a brisk ride of some four hours we arrived at the main portion of
the ruins of Zaidan--an imposing fort on a clay hill, which must have
formed the citadel. At the foot of the hill was the modern village of
Zaidan--about fifty houses, some with flat, others with gabled, roofs,
such as we had seen at the previous villages, and a few with domed roofs.
There were a few cultivated fields in which wheat was raised.

CHAPTER XXII

An ancient city as big as London--The citadel--Towers--Small
rooms--The walls--Immensity of the city--Sand drifts--Why some
parts are buried and some are not--An extensive wall--Great
length of the city--Evidence that the habitations were
continuous--The so-called Rud-i-Nasru--Its position--A double
outer wall--A protected road--Interesting structures--An immense
graveyard--Tombs--Sand drifts explained--A former gate of the
city--The _Chil-pir_ or tomb of forty saints--Interesting objects
found--Beautiful inscriptions on marble and slate--Marble
columns--Graceful lamps--Exciting digging--A tablet--Heptagonal
tower--A ghastly figure.

As we approached the ruins we could not help being impressed by their
grandeur. They were certainly the most imposing I had so far come across
in Persia. The high walls and towers of the fort could be seen from a
great distance, and for the benefit of my readers a photograph is
reproduced in this book to show how the citadel of this great city
appeared as one drew near it from the west. The photograph was taken half
a mile away from the fortress.

We entered the citadel by a short incline on the northern side of the
main fort and found ourselves in a huge court, the sides of which were
much blocked towards the wall by sand drifts. Contrary to what has been
stated by others, the citadel is not inhabited to-day, nor are there any
signs of its having been inhabited