sculptures and historical inscriptions, representing scenes of hunting, worship, feasts, battles, and the like. The harem, with separate provisions for four wives, occupied the south corner, the domestic quarters, including stables, kitchen, bakery, wine cellar, &c., being at the east corner, to the north-east of the great entrance court. In the west corner stood a temple, with a stage-tower (ziggurat) adjoining. The walls of the rooms, which stood only to the height of one storey, were from 9 to 25 ft. in thickness, of clay, faced with brick, in the reception rooms wainscoted with stone slabs or tiles, elsewhere plastered, or, in the harem, adorned with fresco paintings and arabesques. Here and there the floors were formed of tiles or alabaster blocks, but in general they were of stamped clay, on which were spread at the time of occupancy mats and rugs. The exterior of the palace wall exhibited a system of groups of half columns and stepped recesses, an ornament familiar in Babylonian architecture. The palace and city were completed in 707 B.C., and in 706 Sargon took up his residence there. He died the following year, and palace and city seem to have been abandoned shortly thereafter. Up to 1909 this was the only Assyrian palace which had ever been explored systematically, in its entirety, and fortunately it was found on the whole in an admirable state of preservation. An immense number of statues and bas-reliefs, excavated by Botta, were transported to Paris, and formed the first Assyrian museum opened to the world. The objects excavated by Place, together with the objects found by Fresnel’s expedition in Babylonia and a part of the results of Rawlinson’s excavations at Nineveh, were unfortunately lost in the Tigris, on transport from Bagdad to Basra. Flandin had, however, made careful drawings and copies of all objects of importance from Khorsabad. The whole material was published by the French government in two monumental publications.
See P. E. Botta and E. Flandin, Monument de Ninive (Paris, 1849–1850; 5 vols. 400 plates); Victor Place, Ninïve et l’Assyrie, avec des essais de restauration par F. Thomas (Paris, 1866–1869; 3 vols.). (J. P. Pe.)
KHOTAN (locally Ilchi), a town and oasis of East Turkestan,
on the Khotan-darya, between the N. foot of the Kuen-lun and
the edge of the Takla-makan desert, nearly 200 m. by caravan
road S.E. from Yarkand. Pop., about 5000. The town consists
of a labyrinth of narrow, winding, dirty streets, with poor,
square, flat-roofed houses, half a dozen madrasas (Mahommedan
colleges), a score of mosques, and some masars (tombs of Mahommedan
saints). Dotted about the town are open squares, with
tanks or ponds overhung by trees. For centuries Khotan was
famous for jade or nephrite, a semi-precious stone greatly
esteemed by the Chinese for making small fancy boxes, bottles
and cups, mouthpieces for pipes, bracelets, &c. The stone is
still exported to China. Other local products are carpets (silk
and felt), silk goods, hides, grapes, rice and other cereals, fruits,
tobacco, opium and cotton. There is an active trade in these
goods and in wool with India, West Turkestan and China. The
oasis contains two small towns, Kara-kash and Yurun-kash, and
over 300 villages, its total population being about 150,000.
Khotan, known in Sanskrit as Kustana and in Chinese as Yu-than, Yu-tien, Kiu-sa-tan-na, and Khio-tan, is mentioned in Chinese chronicles in the 2nd century B.C. In A.D. 73 it was conquered by the Chinese, and ever since has been generally dependent upon the Chinese empire. During the early centuries of the Christian era, and long before that, it was an important and flourishing place, the capital of a kingdom to which the Chinese sent embassies, and famous for its glass-wares, copper tankards and textiles. About the year A.D. 400 it was a city of some magnificence, and the seat of a flourishing cult of Buddha, with temples rich in paintings and ornaments of the precious metals; but from the 5th century it seems to have declined. In the 8th century it was conquered, after a struggle of 25 years, by the Arab chieftain Kotaiba ibn Moslim, from West Turkestan, who imposed Islam upon the people. In 1220 Khotan was destroyed by the Mongols under Jenghiz Khan. Marco Polo, who passed through the town in 1274, says that “Everything is to be had there [at Cotan, i.e. Khotan] in plenty, including abundance of cotton, with flax, hemp, wheat, wine, and the like. The people have vineyards and gardens and estates. They live by commerce and manufactures, and are no soldiers.”[1] The place suffered severely during the Dungan revolt against China in 1864–1875, and again a few years later when Yakub Beg of Kashgar made himself master of East Turkestan.
The Khotan-darya rises in the Kuen-lun Mountains in two headstreams, the Kara-kash and the Yurun-kash, which unite towards the middle of the desert, some 90 m. N. of the town of Khotan. The conjoint stream then flows 180 m. northwards across the desert of Takla-makan, though it carries water only in the early summer, and empties itself into the Tarim a few miles below the confluence of the Ak-su with the Yarkand-darya (Tarim). In crossing the desert it falls 1250 ft. in a distance of 270 m. Its total length is about 300 m. and the area it drains probably nearly 40,000 sq. m.
See J. P. A. Rémusat, Histoire de la ville de Khotan (Paris, 1820); and Sven Hedin, Through Asia (Eng. trans., London, 1898), chs. lx. and lxii., and Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899–1902, vol. ii. (Stockholm, 1906). (J. T. Be.)
KHOTIN, or Khoteen (variously written Khochim, Choczim,
and Chocim), a fortified town of South Russia, in the government
of Bessarabia, in 48° 30′ N. and 26° 30′ E., on the right bank of
the Dniester, near the Austrian (Galician) frontier, and opposite
Podolian Kamenets. Pop. (1897), 18,126. It possesses a few
manufactures (leather, candles, beer, shoes, bricks), and carries on
a considerable trade, but has always been of importance mainly
as a military post, defending one of the most frequented passages
of the Dniester. In the middle ages it was the seat of a Genoese
colony; and it has been in Polish, Turkish and Austrian possession.
The chief events in its annals are the defeat of the Turks in 1621
by Ladislaus IV., of Poland, in 1673 by John Sobieski, of Poland,
and in 1739 by the Russians under Münnich; the defeat of the
Russians by the Turks in 1768; the capture by the Russians in
1769, and by the Austrians in 1788; and the occupation by the
Russians in 1806. It finally passed to Russia with Bessarabia in
1812 by the peace of Bucharest.
KHULNA, a town and district of British India, in the Presidency
division of Bengal. The town stands on the river Bhairab,
and is the terminus of the Bengal Central railway, 109 m. E. of
Calcutta. Pop. (1901), 10,426. It is the most important centre
of river-borne trade in the delta.
The District of Khulna lies in the middle of the delta of the Ganges, including a portion of the Sundarbans or seaward fringe of swamps. It was formed out of Jessore in 1882. Area (excluding the Sundarbans), 2077 sq. m. Besides the Sundarbans, the north-east part of the district is swampy; the north-west is more elevated and drier, while the central part, though low-lying, is cultivated. The whole is alluvial. In 1901 the population was 1,253,043, showing an increase of 6% in the decade. Rice is the principal crop; mustard, jute and tobacco are also grown, and the fisheries are important. Sugar is manufactured from the date palm. The district is entered by the Bengal Central railway, but by far the greater part of the traffic is carried by water.
See District Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1908).
KHUNSAR, a town of Persia, sometimes belonging to the
province of Isfahan, at others to Irak, 96 m. N.W. of Isfahan,
in 33° 9′ N., 50° 23′ E., at an elevation of 7600 ft. Pop., about
10,000. It is picturesquely situated on both sides of a narrow
valley through which the Khunsar River, a stream about 12 ft.
wide, flows in a north-east direction to Kuom. The town and its
fine gardens and orchards straggle some 6 m. along the valley
with a mean breadth of scarcely half a mile. There is a great
profusion of fruit, the apples yielding a kind of cider which,
however, does not keep longer than a month. The climate is
cool in summer and cold in winter. There are five caravanserais,
three mosques and a post office.
KHURJA, a town of British India, in the Bulandshahr district
of the United Provinces, 27 m. N.W. of Aligarh, near the main
- ↑ Sir H. Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, bk. i. ch. xxxvi. (3rd ed., London, 1903).
