CHAP. VII.] DEFENCES OF QANDAHAR. 141 parts, each on a separate eminence, and capable The city and the ridge. of mutual defence. On the serrated crest of the hill stood many towers united by curtains. The highest of these, called Lakah, was almost impregnable. It contained rock-cut tanks of water for the city and commanded the citadel (named Daulatabad), which stood lower down on the second eminence, while the town and market-place (Mandavi), both walled round, were situated further below on the first tableland above the eastern plain. Beyond the city stretched gardens, pleasure-houses and fields for miles and miles, to the north, east, and south- east. Three walls surrounded the city at such a distance from it as to enclose a large open space for the encampment of a garrison in time of war. The walls. The ramparts of the old town were built of dried clay, strengthened by the mixture of chopped straw and stones. The material, thoroughly wetted and stamped out, was laid in layers of eighteen inches high at a time and allowed to dry before the next layer was put on. Their thickness at places was ten yards. An English officer in 1878 wrote of these walls as about the stiffest
- This description is based on Ferrier, 317; Le Messurier's
Kandahar in 1879, pp. 70 and 71. Digitized by Microsoft Ⓡ
