argest conglomeration of houses in the
world. It was evidently necessary to subdivide such an enormous place
into districts.

[Illustration: Transfer of Inscription dated 1282, found in the "Tomb of
Forty Saints," Zaidan.]

[Illustration: Transfer of Ornament above four lines of Koran on Grave
Stone.]

[Illustration: Transfer of Ornamentations on Marble Grave.]

[Illustration: Presumed Summits of Towers buried in Sand, Zaidan.

Notice top of Castellated Wall behind.]

Bellew, who visited the ruins in 1872, speaks of Zaidan as "extending as
far as the eye can reach to the north-east, and said to be continuous
with the ruins of Doshak (Deshtak), about nine miles from the Helmund.
These ruins, with those of Pulki, Nadali and Peshawaran, are the most
extensive in Sistan, and mark the sites of populous cities, the like of
which are not to be found at this present day in all this region between
the Indus and the Tigris."

Doshak or Deshtak is situated about fourteen miles south by south-east of
Sher-i-Nasrya, on the right bank of the main canal which extended from
the Halmund towards the west. It was a large walled town, with towers and
a square fort in the centre. Deshtak is said to have been the residence
and capital of the first member of the Safavi dynasty in Sistan, which,
like all other cities of Sistan, was pillaged and razed to the ground by
the terrible Taimur Lang. On its ruins rose the smaller city of some 500
houses which we have mentioned--also called Jalalabad--and which
eventually became the seat of Bahram Khan, the last of the Kayani
chiefs. The city was built by him for his son Jalaludin, after whom it
was named. Jalaludin, however, was expelled from the throne, and from
that date the Kayani family ceased to reign in Sistan.

Pulki was also located on this main canal, east of Deshtak, and
Peshawaran was situated due north of Zaidan. They consist of an immense
extent of ruins. Both Sir F. Goldsmid and Bellew, who travelled in that
part testify to the whole country between Jalalabad, Buri-i-Afghan and
Peshawaran being covered with ruins.

The ruins at Peshawaran I was not able to visit, they being in Afghan
territory--now forbidden to Englishmen--and, being the guest of the
British Consul, I did not wish to cause trouble. Sir F. Goldsmid, who
visited them during the Perso-Afghan Frontier Mission, describes them as
covering a great area and being strongly built of alternate layers of
sun-burnt and bak