| Show across afa hani start 0 0 4 J r motor car of trans atla asia expedition Moi prepared by tb lie national 1 geographic society Wax hington 1 D 0 R along a route made twenty TRAVELING famous by alexander tile the great twenty two and a half centuries i ago the trang asla expedition has just crossed isolated afghanistan from west to east the expedition with which the national geographic society Is operating cooperating co found the caravan tracks in poor condition tor for w wheeled heeled vehicles in many places but even the worst stretches were traversed w with ith relative ease by the special cars equipped with a band drive in place of rear wheels the three major stops in afghanistan s were made at herat metropolis of the western part of the kingdom kandahari Kan dahar in the south and kabul the capital in the east cast to locate distant herat on the world map an american may start stait in known territory at knoxville tenn A line drawn draft n due east will almost bisect herat seventy benty miles from the western afghan border bolder no one knows how bow long herat has been dominating the broad plain in which it la is situated remains of buildings over the plain nearby were ancient to the ancients alexander the great Is credited with th tedi building of the herat walls if that Is a tact fact herat Is at least two thousand two hundred and fifty years old A sort soil of hub for caravan routes lending to many parts of central asia and one of the so called doorways to india by land herat has been a tempting plum tor for rulers of nearby countries and imperial strategists of the eastern hemisphere bent upon annex annei ing portions of southern asia to their domains herat often besieged and taken As a result its 20 25 foot walls surmounted by towers have withstood many sieges but it also has often fall tallen before rit attack tack in the thirteenth century GeD Geog gIlIS lils khan and his horde ot of mongols swept down upon th the e city leaving only a halt half hundred of its hundreds of thousands of trill inhabitants abitanta abi tants alive and these survived only because they feigned death one hundred and fifty years later tamerlane no less merciless nearly duplicated tile the an the persians Pers lins frequently took herat and remained in control for many years at a time today persian blood flows in tile the veins of about one halt half of tile the He beratis Herat ls in 1837 some persians set out to take herat after a siege 0 of f ten m months 0 n t 1 i s t the ii e ll 11 Herat c r a t is ls the help li elpe 0 of nr B british r 1 ti s 1 i fo forces r e es d defeated e f e a t the persians herat then became an independent city alt but in 1801 a quarrel between the rulers of herat and afghanistan resulted in the cites passing of the latter despite frequent revolts and attacks herat continues to rank with the greet cities of central asia frequent rebuilding ding of the city within the walls lias has brol brou olit little change to its people and dally daily life no railroad appi approaches preaches pro caches aches nearer than 80 miles the telegraph icey has never neer clicked within the cites walls unsightly ancient graveyards outside the walls have haie been put in order new defense works have hae been built and a new extension of tile the city with broad streets flanked by modern modem shops Is rising on outside aside of the north wall but the original moat 4 45 feet wide and 10 feet deep still Is there ther e today as it was ns centuries ago 1190 inside the walls beratis live in low mud and sun dried brick buildings as d did id their ancestors estors the streets are mere inele passageways eways they are playgrounds for children and stages tor for debate by bewhiskered men some of tile the streets are covered to keep out the sun one chronicler wis tas not t far wrong when he compared them with vi ath rabbit warrens hard route to kandahari Kan dahar south and east of herat the ete e expedition te encountered difficult terrain over which few motor cars have passed many swift streams had to be forded corded and three mountain ranges crossed the only major river encountered the helfand Ile Hel linand mand had to be crossed by means of an ancient ferry the transfer of the 21 cars trailers and trucks across the helfand consumed two days dais to kandahari Kan Kand dahar abar important trade center of southern afghanistan caravan roads converge from several gateways into persia from turkestan Turk estan from herat and kabul in afghanistan and from and india geography has given it trade value for two millenniums the town lies iles on oil a level plain between litween two rivers tho the barnak and aad ar to the north and northeast lie barren hills but south and west of the city the plain Is irrigated by numerous canals and Is highly productive and thickly settled this irrigated land about kandahari Kan dahar la Is one of the best fruit growing regions of the middle middie east peaches apricots grapes figs melons and pomegranates grow to perfection fruits both fresh and dried make vp up prominent items in ia the cites exports A ditch and a mud brick wall extending I 1 for more than three miles surround kandahari Kan dahar outside the east gate Is a large caravansary where are of often to be found huge stores of wool and other products destined for india kandahari Kan dahar shows its trade importance and the cosmopolitan character of its inhabitants in its bazaars hindu afghan persian and me merchants handle goods from europe central asia tu estan and india rits the I 1 lie hindu mercha merchants predominate and are aie shipping agents as well their outgoing caravans carry in addition to wool and dried fruits evil smelling asafetida tor for the drug trade indifferent tobacco madder for the outside worlds paint tubes and dye vats SIM silk and cleverly cle erly carved caned prayer beads tor for devout moslems from java to mo rocco the dwelling houses of kandahari Kan dahar are built of sun dried brick with hat flat roofs most alost of 0 them are small and or of one story but the houses of thol tho wealthy merchants have upper floors and are aie by high walls A few have spacious courts and a nd elaborate fountains and gardens plenty of sunni mosques the afghans belong to the branch of mohammedanism a rival ced cheed to that of the accepted by the persians Iler starts there are mosques in kandahari Kan dahar and not oner one salah mosque although many of the city dwellers from outside afghanistan are Sli Sl lahs italis topping the towns skyline ski line Is the lofty dome of the tomb of ahmad shall durrail Durra Dur nl which maybe seen by the traveler while he Is still far from the outer wall kandahari Kan dahar Is in the same latitude as dallas texas but because it Is surrounded by deserts and mountains its climate Is more nearly comparable to that of the drier portions of northern nort Al exico there Is little rainfall and in summer the temperature temp grature rises to most uncomfortable heights gust east and north of kandahari Kan dahar better roads were encountered than those of eastern afghanistan and tile the expedition had little dlin culty in reaching kabul it found that the ambitious in modern capital city which former kins king amanullah Amanul laii had almost completed on OD the outskirts of kabul before ills his visit to the united states in 1028 1928 Is now deserted governmental activities as during past centuries are carried oa am in old kabul kabul big and busy kabul Is one of tile the three of the least known capitals in the world today I 1 tile he others are lhasa capital of tibee ani and clad capital of the newly recognized country fedj in ili central arabia kabul granted the trans asia expedition por permission mission to enter but customarily to it hangs out no welcome signs to visitors distinguished or otherwise the afghan capital like the rest of the asian monarchy of which it Is the largest city asks little from the outside world and would like tile tho attitude reciprocated yet kabul Is far from crude or primitive it has electric lights from a if hydroelectric power plant telephones phones many automobiles but few roads machine shops munitions works and factories for making soap r slices hoes and cloth all built under english supervision its tanneries canneries tann eries established through the co operation cooperation of outside experts are sources of especial pride kabul itself Is a busy city of about people one can only guess at tile the population because the single effort at a census tailed failed before the innate exclusiveness of the afghan rather nattier than tell their names and ag ages so many kabul residents either left the city or hid away that busl business ness was disrupted and the census was abandoned dabuls hat flat root roof dwellings rise la ia sweeping tiers from the hanks banks of the kabul kabal river to sun parched foothills feet above tile sea higher than the peak of tit mt Bl mitchell Itchell loftiest loft iest of tile tho appalachian chain the peaks of the hindu kush three times as high jut into tile the skyline not far away hence its winters are cold and its summers mild piano players and phonographs give the ear nn inkling of the home life of Afghani stans capital a home life which Is screened from the eye by interminable mud ft walls alls probably nowhere in the east Is the seclusion of women more complete than in kabul the extent of mans nails wall sis Is the barometer of his social station when a western idea finally readies reaches tile the kabul home the impact often leaves a strange anticlimax the story Is told ct cf one wealthy Ka bullan who would have nothing less than a grand piano in his home after many months it arrived but minus a bench for the tha player all right said tho the purchaser im accustomed to sitting bitting on the floor saw off its legy I 1 |
