Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/341

 The rectangular enclosure measures about two hundred and fifty yards on each side, following the points of the compass ; and the huge walls of earth and rubble, which reminded me of the ramparts that crown the hill at Hamadan, are between fifteen and twenty feet thick. They are now in a crumbling condition, but their solidity gives the idea of strength noted by Muhalhil, if not of permanence.

Several portions of the bulwarks were fallen from sheer weight and decay, and were lying in great masses here and there within the circumvallation, or were filling parts of the moat from whose earth they were originally raised. The northern wall and the north end of the western rampart were best pre- served, and spaces within the enceinte were devoted to gardens under good cultivation, but the scene on the whole was one of utter desolation. My guide stood for a moment, as I photo- graphed him, upon a site that may once have been occupied by a banquet hall of forgotten revel, now sunk into unrecognizable dust. I asked him whether any inscription had been found among the ruins, and he pointed without hesitation to a spot where he said that a sang-i nipishtah^ or ' stone with writing,' had been dug up shortly before. I had no real reason to doubt the truth of his statement, since he looked for the stone, ex- pecting to find it, and seemed surprised at its disappearance since his last visit to the site. I offered a reward in case the relic could be recovered, and some later traveler may possibly reap the advantage of adding another link in the chain con- necting the history of Bustam with Sasanian times.

It was now time to wend my way back southward across a sparsely occupied stretch to the main portion of the city, guided ever by the blue towers near the Mosque of Shaikh Bayazid. Entering through a heavy gateway, flanked by high rounded bastions which strengthen the city wall at regular intervals, I found myself in the more modern section of the town — if a settlement with a history of a thousand years and over can be called modern.

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