parts, each on a separate eminence, and capable
The city and the ridge.
of mutual defence. On the
serrated crest of the hill stood
many towers united by curtains.
The highest of these, called Lakah, was almost
impregnable. It contained rock-cut tanks of
water for the city and commanded the citadel
(named Daulatabad), which stood lower down
on the second eminence, while the town and
market-place (Mandavi), both walled round,
were situated further below on the first tableland
above the eastern plain. Beyond the city
stretched gardens, pleasure-houses and fields for
miles and miles, to the north, east, and south-east. Three walls surrounded the city at such a
distance from it as to enclose a large open space for the encampment of a garrison in time of war.
The ramparts[1] of the old town were built of dried clay,The walls. strengthened by the mixture of chopped straw and stones. The material, thoroughly wetted and stamped out, was laid in layers of eighteen inches high at a time and allowed to dry before the next layer was put on. Their thickness at places was ten yards. An English officer in 1878 wrote of these walls as about the stiffest
- ↑ This description is based on Ferrier, 317; Le Messurier's Kandahar in 1879, pp. 70 and 71.