HERAT is a city of great interest both historically and geographically, and is of even greater interest politically, its importance at the present day being indicated by its popular designation of the " key of India." Its origin is . lost in antiquity. The name first appears in the list of primitive Zoroastrian settlements contained in the Vendiddd Sad , where, however, like most of the names in the same list,—such as Snglidu (Sogdia), Mouru (Merv or Mar- gns), Haraquiti (Arachotus or Arghend-ab), Ifaetiimant (Etymander or Helmand), and Rayha (or Argha-stan), it sesms to apply to the river or river-basin, which was the special centrs of population. This name of Ilaroyu, as it is written in the Vendiddd, or Hariwa, as it appears in the inscriptions of Darius, is a cognate form with the Sanskrit Samy>t, which signifies " a river," and its resemblance to the ethnic title of Aryan. (Sans. Arya) is purely fortuitous ; though from the circumstance of the city being named " Aria Metropolis" by the Greeks, and being also recognized as the capital of Ariana, " the country of the Ariaus," the two forms have been frequently confounded. Of the foundation of Herat (or Heri, as it is still often called) nothing is known. We can only infer from the colossal character of the earth-works which surround the modern town, that, like the similar remains at Bost on the Hel- mand and at Ulan Robat of Arachosia, they belong to that period of Central-Asian history which preceded the rise of Acha3menian power, and which in Grecian romance is illustrated by the names of Bacchus, of Hercules, and of Semiramis.
The natural advantages of Herat are mainly due to its river, which, rising in the high uplands 350 miles to the eastward, where the Koh-i-BaM, the prolongation of the Hindu-kush, bifurcates into the two parallel ranges of the Sufid-koh or " white mountains " to the north and the Siyah-koh or " black mountains " to the south, passes in the upper part of its course through a succession of rolling downs of the finest pasture-land, and lower down traverses a more contracted valley, enlivened, however, throughout with smiling villages and orchards, till it reaches the eastern limit of the alluvial plain of Herat. Here at the present day nine large canals (in former times there were twenty) carry off the waters of the Heri-rud for the irrigation of the circumjacent plain, which on a rough calculation may be said to contain nearly 400 square miles of land available for cultivation. M. Khanikoff, who visited Herat in 1858, observes that nowhere in the East, not even at Samarcand or Bokhara or Ispahan, where the art of canalization is supposed to be carried to perfection, had he seen water courses constructed with so much skill, or maintained with so much care, as in the valley of the Heri-rud ; and he adds that, although at the period of his visit nine-tenths of the villages of the plain, which in ordinary times amount to nearly 500, were partially in ruins and the adjoining fields laid waste, the cereal produce of the remaining lands was still far in excess of the wants of the settled inhabitants. The Heri-rud, passing between 3 and 4 miles to the south of Herat-, where it is spanned by a magnificent bridge of twenty-three arches, called the Ptil-i-Mdldn, continues its course westward to the extremity of this rich and fertile plain ; it then turns north through an arid country for some 200 miles to Sarakhs, receiving two small streams from the west, the Ab-i-Jam and Ab-i-Meshed, and forming the territorial boundary between Persia and Afghanistan. As the Heri- rud is^ formed of the converging drainage of the Sufid-koh and Siyah-koh ranges, and its volume thus depends on the extent of snow that falls in the mountains, it is impossible to define with any exactitude the limit of its northern course ; but in ordinary seasons water is rarely found in the river bed beyond Sarakhs, and never does the stream pene trate to the northward of a line uniting Abiverd and Merv; and it is of the more importance to note this geographical feature, as in many of our modern maps the line of the Heri-rud, or Tejend, as it is called in its lower course, is prolonged through the desert 200 miles to the north-west ward of Sarakhs.
The city of Herat is in 34 22 N. lat. and 62 9 E. long. It is very centrically situated, great lines of commu nication radiating from it in all directions southward to Seistan (200 miles), south-eastward to Kandahar (370 miles), eastward to Cabul (550 miles), northward by Mymeneh to Bokhara (GOO miles) and by Merv to Khiva (700 miles), while to the westward four routes lead into Persia by Turbat to Meshed (215 miles), and by Birjend to Kerman (400 miles), to Yezrl (500 miles), or to Ispahan (600 miles). The city forms a quadrangle of nearly a mile square (more accurately about 1600 yards by 1500 yards) ; on the western, southern, and eastern faces the line of defence is almost straight, the only projecting points being the gateways, but on the northern face the contour is broken by a double outwork, consisting of theyl?-or citadel, which is built of sun-dried brick on a high artificial mound within the enceinte, and a lower work at its foot, called the Ark- i-noic, or "new citadel," which extends 100 yards beyond the line of the city wall. That which distinguishes Herat from all other Oriental cities, and at the same time consti tutes its main defence, is the stupendous character of the earthwork upon which the city wall is built. This earth work averages 250 feet in width at the base and about 50 feet in height, and as it is crowned by a wall 25 feet high and 14 feet thick at the base, supported by about 150 semi-circular towers, and is further protected by a ditch 45 feet in width and 16 in depth, it presents an appearance of imposing strength. Whether the place is really as strong as it looks has been differently estimated. General Ferrier, who resided for some time in Herat in 1846, states that the city is nothing more than an immense redoubt, and gives it as his opinion that as the line of wall is entirely without flanking defences, the place could not hold out for twenty days against a European army; and M. Khanikoff, who, though not a professional soldier, was a very acute observer, further remarks that the whole interior of the city is dominated from the rising ground at the north-east angle, while the water supply both for the ditch and the city w r ould be at the mercy of an enemy holding the outside country, the wells and reservoirs inside the wall, which would then be alone available, being quite inadequate to the wants of the inhabitants ; but on the other hand all experience testifies to the defensibility of the position. Not to speak of the sieges which Herat sustained at the hands of Jenghiz Khan, of Timur, and of Ahmed Shah, we have only to remember that in 1837 the Afghans of Herat beat off the continuous attack for nearly ten months of a Persian army of 35,000 regular troops, supported by 50 pieces of artillery, and in many cases directed and even commanded by Russian officers. The truth seems to be that Herat, though in its present state quite unfit to resist a European army, possesses great capabilities of defence, and might by a skilful adaptation of the resources of modern science be made almost impregnable. A British engineer officer, Major Sandexs, calculated in 1840 that at an outlay of sixty or seventy thousand pounds, which would include the expense of deepening the ditch, clearing the glacis and esplanade, providing flanking defences and repairing the walls, &c., throughout, Herat might be rendered secure against any possible renewal of the attack by Persia ; but of course if an attack by a well-appointed European army were anticipated, more extensive preparations for defence would be required, including probably the erection of two independent forts on the high ground at Mosalla and Thaleh-bengi.
