Burnes, Alexander: Travels into Bokhara: containing the narrative of a voyage on the Indus from the sea to Lahore, ... and an account of a journey from India to Cabool, Tartary and Persia ; performed by order of the supreme government of India, in the years 1831, 32, and 33 (Band 2) (London, 1835)

CHAP. X.

bokhara.

Tradition assigns the foundation of the city of
Bokhara to the age of Sikunder Zoolkurnuen, or
Alexander the Great, and the geography of the
country favours the belief of its having been a city
in the earliest ages. A fertile soil, watered by a
rivulet, and surrounded by a desert, was like a haven
to the mariner. Bokhara lies embosomed among
gardens and trees, and cannot be seen from a dis-
tance : it is a delightful place, and has a salubrious
climate; but I cannot concur with the Arabian
geographers, who describe it as the paradise of the
world. Ferdoosy, the great Persian poet, says,
" that when the king saw Mawuroolnuhr, he saw a
world of cities." Compared with Arabia and the
arid plains of Persia, this may be true, but some of
the banks of the Indian rivers have a like richness,
beauty, and fertility. The circumference of Bok-
hara exceeds eight English miles; its shape is
triangular, and it is surrounded by a wall of earth,
about twenty feet high, which is pierced by twelve
gates. According to the custom of the East, these
are named from the cities and places to which they
lead. Few great buildings are to be seen from the
exterior; but when the traveller enters, he winds