Identifier: afghanistan00hami (find matches)
Title: Afghanistan
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Hamilton, A. (Angus), 1874-1913
Subjects: Eastern question (Central Asia) Afghanistan Asia, Central -- Description and travel
Publisher: Boston, Tokyo : J. B. Millet company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ty among the people, the lack of fuel being the principal cause of the deaths. The flocks of sheep and goats and the droves of camels also suffer;and, as there is a large nomadic population in the district, the distress is not confined to the limits of the town. Indeed, the Ghazni centre experiences a higher rate of mortality than anywhere else in Afghanistan. Kabul is situated at the western extremity of a spacious plain in an angle formed by the approach of two converging heights, the Asmai and the Shere Darwaza, with which the Takht-i-Shah is joined bya narrow ridge 7 miles above the confluence of the Logar and Kabul Rivers. The elevation of these three hills are: Asmai, 6790 feet; Shere Darwaza, 7166 feet; and the Takht-i-Shah, 7530 feet. The city is about 3 miles in circumference, but there are no walls round it at the present time. Formerly it was encircled by walls constructed of sun-baked bricks and mud. Traces of the wall may be seen in many places; along the crests of the Asmai and Shere 288
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PALACES AND COURT LIFE Darwaza it is still standing and follows those heights to the Kabul River, which separates the two. If the existing landmarks are any indication of its original size, it is improbable that old Kabul ever can have boasted a permanent population of 20,000 inhabitants. The walls of the old city were pierced by seven gates, the Lahore gate being now the only one which is left. These earlier gates were the Sirdar, Pet, Deh Afghanan, Deh Mazang, GuzarGah, Jabr, and the Lahore, the existing entrance.Of these the Sirdar was the last, and the Jabr gate the first, to be removed. The sites of the others,although no longer existing, are quite well known and serve as custom stations to the revenue officers.Many of the names by which these seven gates were known belonged to 1504, when Baber raised the for-tunes of the city to the dignity of a capital — a period so remote from to-day that it is only by the recapitulation of the names that the incidents of that epoch are recalled. No

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