t surmounted
generally by a prism.

[Illustration: Interior of Zaidan Fortress.]

[Illustration: Graveyard of Zaidan City.]

The photograph facing page 214 shows the north-western portion of the
graveyard, with the entire eastern aspect of the Zaidan fortress. I took
this photograph for the special purpose of proving how high the sand has
accumulated over many portions of the graveyard, as well as over a great
portion of the city. The particular spot where I took the photograph was
somewhat protected from the north, hence the low depression, slightly
more free from sand than further back where the sand, as can be seen, was
able to settle down to a great height. The upper portions of several
graves can be noticed mostly buried in sand, and by the ripples on the
sand and the casting of the shadows (the photograph was taken in the
afternoon when the sun was west) it can be seen plainly that the sand
has accumulated from the north.

Under the immediate lee of the fortress and of the outer walls, similar
depressions in the sand were found, and it is owing to these that some
portion of the city was still uncovered by sand.

In the photograph facing page 214 it may be noticed that where the lee of
the high fortress no longer protects the buildings from the drifting
sand, the city gradually disappears, as it were, under fairly high
accumulations.

We shall find later, on our journey to the Beluchistan frontier, how
these sand accumulations, in their turn, forming themselves into barriers
against the sands which came from the north, allowed further southerly
portions of the city to escape unburied, which portions can be seen
extending in and out of these transverse sand ridges as far south as
Kala-i-Fath. North of the Zaidan fortress the sand, finding no high
obstacles, has accumulated to a much greater height, only very lofty
buildings remaining visible above the surface.

In the photograph facing page 206 this high cushion, as it were, of sand
can plainly be seen over the north of the city beyond the tower of the
castle; also a portion of the small canal at the foot of the tower, which
some will have it was the Rud-i-Nasru.

In the distance towards the south-east, two quadrangular towers could be
seen, which the Katkhuda of Zaidan village told us formed part of one of
the former gates of the city. These two towers can be seen in the
background of the photograph facing page 212.

Some distance beyond the graveyard we