Pl. II.
J. W. del. W. L. Walton, Lithog. Printed by Hullmandel & Walton.
ISKARDO
From South-east of the Valley.
The mountains which surround the Iskardo plain rise at once with great abruptness, and are very steep and bare. Those on the south side, derived from the range which separates the Indus from the table-land of Deotsu, the axis of which is not more than ten or fifteen miles distant, rise very abruptly in rocky pinnacles, covered, at the time I reached the valley, with much snow. Two spurs from this range run forward to the Indus, one five miles east of Iskardo, the other about three miles to the west of it, dividing the whole south side of the valley into three deep bays, each watered by a considerable stream, whose source is in the southern mountains. The mountains on the north side, the terminal spurs of two great branches of the Kuenlun or Muztagh, which flank the Shigar river, are considerably lower, but equally barren and desolate.
The river Indus traverses the open valley in an extremely winding course. At one time it washes the base of the cliffs which terminate the projecting mountain spurs; at another it flows between high banks of alluvial conglomerate or of fine clay. Not unfrequently these clayey cliffs recede to a considerable distance from the river, in which case the intervening space is generally sandy. A small branch of the stream, at times little more than a chain of pools, often runs close to the cliffs, indicating a former channel of the river; and when this is the case, the low ground between the two channels is often swampy and grassy.
The bed of the Indus in this part of its course is very little inclined, the stream flowing in general very gently over a sandy bed, its surface quite smooth and tranquil, occasionally only a little rippled in turning round a projecting rocky spur, where its bottom is gravelly and the inclination perhaps a little greater. Opposite Iskardo the Indus is even in the depth of winter a noble stream, often more than 500 feet wide, and nine or ten feet deep in the centre.
Iskardo occupies a nearly level plain of fine alluvial clay elevated fifty or sixty feet above the river, and extending from the isolated rock which overhangs the Indus towards the mountains on the south side of the valley. To the right and left of the rocky hill, two small streams have excavated for themselves out of the soft clay deep and wide ravines, which are covered with coarse gravel, and are faced by more or less steep banks of clay or sand. The surface of the platform on which all the cultivated ground lies is watered by means of artificial canals, brought from a distance of nearly two miles, from the point where the streams issue from among the hills.
The neighbourhood of the rock of Iskardo was doubtless selected as the site of the principal town of the kingdom of Balti, from the advantages which it afforded as a place of defence; and in the days of the independence of the country a fortified palace occupied its eastern extremity, while the western and more accessible end was apparently protected by a series of rude works. The principal buildings of the palace seem to have been at the very base of the rock. A mass of ruins, showing large blocks of well-hewn stone, fragments of marble fountains, and some solid walls supporting terraces, which appear at one time to have been gardens, alone remain to show the former magnificence of the place. A mausoleum, raised to the memory of the last independent king, Ahmed Shah, perched on a rock perhaps 300 feet above the plain, is still untouched and uninjured.
An aqueduct or canal extends in a direct line from the palace towards the mountains, a distance of at least a mile. It is an exceedingly massive work, consisting of two walls raised perhaps fifteen feet above the level of the plain, and built of very large blocks of hewn stone. The intervening space is filled with earth. At present, a small conduit, a foot or so wide, brings all the water which is required for the use of the inhabitants of Iskardo; but a very large quantity might be conveyed along the aqueduct, and the work is so strong and substantial that very little repair would be requisite to restore it to its original condition.
The fortified post of the present rulers of the country is built on the margin of the platform of alluvium, on the right bank of the little stream which joins the Indus to the east of the rock of Iskardo, and is separated by a hollow from the palace and the principal part of the village. It is built of unburnt brick, and is extremely irregular in shape, with rounded bastions at the angles.
The houses of Iskardo are very much scattered over a large extent of surface, so that there is no appearance of a town; nor is the population in the immediate neighbourhood of the rock so extensive as that of some of the more remote villages in the valley, and especially of those on the banks of the Shigar river, which are very richly cultivated. Many of the Iskardo houses, however, are very good, being often of two stories, and built of unburnt bricks in a framework of wood. Latticed windows, covered with paper or small plates of mica, are also common. The roofs are all flat, and covered with mud beaten hard.