Traders from Greece began, about the twelfth century of the new era, if not earlier, to become acquainted with the routes over the Pamir to Serica, or "the Land of Silk." Being already established in Baktriana, on the valley of the Middle Oxus, the Greeks naturally sought to cross the plateau by ascending the Oxus until stopped by some impassable gorge. Ptolemy, relying on older documents, tells us, in fact, that they proceeded northwards to the country of the Comedes, whose name possibly survives in that of the town of Kabadian.
| Fig. 85—Routes of Explorers in the Eastern Pamir. |
| Scale 1 : 4,500,000. |
| File:TE&II Vol 6 Fig 085b.jpg |
 90 Miles.
|
Farther on the road followed the foot of the plateau by the valley of the Oxus, and probably of its tributary the Surgh-ab, running thence towards the "Stone Tower," the chief station and resting-place on this dreary journey. This tower Rawlinson seems inclined to identify with one of the numerous tash-kurgan, or cairns, scattered over this region. It stands 11,000 feet above the sea, on a head-stream of the Yarkand, at the eastern base of the Pamir in Sirikol. But it does not seem probable that, in order to pass from the Surgh-ab in the Tarim (Oechardes) valley,
