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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 83

Herat

Herat.

War throws a calcium glare upon the out of the way places of the earth, and spreads the knowledge of Madagascar, Tonquin, Chili, Khartoum, Shendy, Berber, Candahar, and Herat. Some time ago we wrote, in this magazine, of the campaigns of Alexander, from the articles by Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, in the Revue des Deux Mondes. Alexander reached India via Herat. He has been credited with founding it, but doubtless it existed before. The masterly judgment of the conqueror, who picked the site of Alexandria, would not overlook the strategical importance of Herat. Its value is comparable to that of Khartoum, at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile.

Like the land of Egypt, the valley of Herat owes all to its river, the Heri-rud. The city is the junction, or knot, of no less than nine roads, the most important of Central Asia. Four of these roads are westward, into Persia. They are the highways to Teheran, Ispahan, and all the cities of that nation.

We write of a territory of magnificent distances. When the centres of population are mentioned to which the roads from Herat lead, it must be remembered that the distances arc of 300, 400, 500 miles, and the like. Thus the south-east road to Candahar is 370 miles, and the east road to Cabul, 550 miles. Northerly, the roads from Herat lead to Merv, Bokhara, and Balkh.

Herat is about a mile square, entirely enclosed by a mound of earth, varying from 40 to 60 feet high. On top of this is a brick wall, about half the height of the mound. Outside the mound are the ditches. All these works are in a state of neglect and delapidation, like the great wall of China. It is a moot point, among military authorities, whether Herat is really a strong place or not. Some estimate that it can easily be rendered impregnable. The question is as open as the fighting qualities of the ironclads. Colossus and Rodney. Outside Herat there is a considerable artificial mountain, piled up by one of the besiegers in antiquity, after the example by which Alexander captured a stronghold on the way to Egypt.

Herat is altogether in a very tumble-down way, but it had page 52 the reputation, 600 years ago, of being the finest city in the world. It has two streets, which have divided the reputation now possessed by Broadway, in New York. One Broadway is from north to south, the other from east to west. The city is thus cut into four divisions, which are the basis of the municipal government. The Broadways, called bazaars, used to be covered in with sumptuous architecture, domes, cupolas, and so on, but all has gone to rack and ruin.

It is maintained that any civilised power which occupies Herat can make the district of Khorassan, of which it is the capital, self-supporting, for there are splendid deposits of iron, with all the materials for making gunpowder; and the kindly fruits of the earth, including corn, are produced in such lavish abundance that Herat is called the Garden and Granary of Asia.

The population of Herat is about 40,000, poor and struggling, and compounded of people as different as Irish, Scotch, French, Germans, Italians, and Spaniards. It is the most cosmopolitan Asiatic place inland. In the dark ages of Europe, and bright of Asia, the population of Herat reached a million and a half, but the enclosure within the walls can only have accommodated about 100,000. The vast bulk of the residents must have lived outside the walls.