in
Afghan territory on the present bank of the Halmund), to Lash Yuwain on
the north (also in Afghan territory on the bank of the Farah Rud), a
distance, according to the Trigonometrical Survey Maps, of 86 miles as
the crow flies. This would agree with the account given me by the Amir of
the extent of the city.

The city of Zaidan was protected by a large fortress at every six
farsakhs (24 miles). Each fortress was said to be strongly garrisoned
with troops, and had a high watch tower in the centre similar to that
which I saw at a distance on the north-east of Iskil, and which has been
described in previous pages.

Another historical version attributes the destruction of Zaidan and
adjoining cities to Taimur Lang (Tamerlane) or Taimur the lame (a.h.
736-785), father of Shah Rukh whose barbarous soldiery, as some
traditions will have it, were alone responsible for the pillage of Zaidan
city and the devastation of all Sistan. The name of Taimur Lang is to
this day held in terror by the natives of Sistan.

But whether Zaidan was devastated twice, or whether the two accounts
apply to the same disaster, it is not easy to ascertain at so distant a
date. There are obvious signs all over Eastern Sistan that the country
must have undergone great trouble and changes--probably under the rule of
Shah Rukh and his successors (a.h. 853-873), after which revolutions seem
to have been rampant for some sixty years, until Shah Ismail Safavi
conquered Khorassan and the neighbouring countries, founding a powerful
dynasty which reigned up to the year a.h. 1135.

Under the Safavi dynasty Sistan seems to have been vested in the Kayani
Maliks, who are believed to be descendants of the royal house of Kai. (I
came across a village chief claiming to be the descendant of these Kayani
rulers.)

To return to the Zaidan ruins, as seen to-day from the highest point of
the citadel wall, the ruined city stretches in a curve from north to
south-east. It is to the south-east that the ruins are less covered with
sand and in better preservation, the citadel standing about half way
between its former north and southern termini. There is every evidence
to show that the present extensive ruins of Peshawaran to the north,
Pulki, Deshtak (Doshak described by Bellew) and Nad-i-Ali were at one
epoch merely a continuation of Zaidan the great city, just as
Westminster, South Kensington, Hammersmith, &c., are the continuation of
London, and make it to-day the l