all works dealing with the effigies, brasses and other monuments of the middle ages, to the ancient heraldic seals and to the heraldry of medieval architecture and ornament. (O. Ba.)
HERAT, a city and province of Afghanistan. The city of Herat lies in 34° 20′ 30″ N., and 62° 11′ 0″ E., at an altitude
of 2500 ft. above sea-level. Estimated pop. about 10,000. It
is a city of great interest historically, geographically, politically
and strategically, but in modern days it has quite lost its ancient
commercial importance. From this central point great lines
of communication radiate in all directions to Russian, British,
Persian and Afghan territory. Sixty-six miles to the north lies
the terminus of the Russian railway system; to the south-east
is Kandahar (360 m.) and about 70 m. beyond that, New Chaman,
the terminus of the British railway system. Southward lies
Seistan (200 m.), and eastward Kabul (550 m.); while on the
west four routes lead into Persia by Turbet to Meshed (215 m.),
and by Birjend to Kerman (400 m.), to Yezd (500 m.), or to
Isfahan (600 m.). The city forms a quadrangle of nearly 1 m.
square (more accurately about 1600 yds. by 1500 yds.); 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 the Ark 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-nao, or “new
citadel,” which extends 100 yds. beyond the line of the city
wall. That which distinguishes Herat from all other Oriental
cities, and at the same time constitutes its main defence, is the
stupendous character of the earthwork upon which the city wall
is built. This earthwork averages 250 ft. in width at the base
and about 50 ft. in height, and as it is crowned by a wall 25 ft.
high and 14 ft. thick at the base, supported by about 150 semicircular
towers, and is further protected by a ditch 45 ft. in
width and 16 in depth, it presents an appearance of imposing
strength. When the royal engineers of the Russo-Afghan
Boundary Commission entered Herat in 1885 they found its
defences in various stages of disrepair. The gigantic rampart
was unflanked, and the covered ways in the face of it subject to
enfilade from end to end. The ditch was choked, the gates were
unprotected; the tumbled mass of irregular mud buildings
which constituted the city clung tightly to the walls; there
were no gun emplacements. Outside, matters were almost
worse than inside. To the north of the walls the site of old
Herat was indicated by a vast mass of débris—mounds of bricks
and pottery intersected by a network of shallow trenches,
where the only semblance of a protective wall was the irregular
line of the Tal-i-Bangi. South of the city was a vast area filled
in with the graveyards of centuries. Here the trenches dug by
the Persians during the last siege were still in a fair state of
preservation; they were within a stone’s-throw of the walls.
Round about the city on all sides were similar opportunities
for close approach; even the villages stretched out long irregular
streets towards the city gates. To the north-west, beyond the
Tal-i-Bangi, the magnificent outlines of the Mosalla filled a wide
space with the glorious curves of dome and gateway and the
stately grace of tapering minars, but the impressive beauty
of this, by far the finest architectural structure in all Afghanistan,
could not be permitted to weigh against the fact that the position
occupied by this pile of solid buildings was fatal to the interests
of effective defence. By the end of August 1885, when a political
crisis had supervened between Great Britain and Russia, under
the orders of the Amir the Mosalla was destroyed; but four
minars standing at the corners of the wide plinth still remain
to attest to the glorious proportions of the ancient structure,
and to exhibit samples of that decorative tilework, which for
intricate beauty of design and exquisite taste in the blending
of colour still appeals to the memory as unique. At the same time
the ancient graveyards round the city were swept smooth and
levelled; obstructions were demolished, outworks constructed,
and the defences generally renovated. Whether or no the strength
of this bulwark of North-Western Afghanistan should ever be
practically tested, the general result of the most recent investigations
into the value of Herat as a strategic centre has
been largely to modify the once widely-accepted view that the
key to India lies within it. Abdur Rahman and his successor
Habibullah steadfastly refused the offer of British engineers
to strengthen its defences; and though the Afghans themselves
have occasionally undertaken repairs, it is doubtful whether
the old walls of Herat are maintained in a state of efficiency.
The exact position of Herat, with reference to the Russian station of Kushk (now the terminus of a branch railway from Merv), is as follows: From Herat, a gentle ascent northwards for 3 m. reaches to the foot of the Koh-i-Mulla Khwaja, crossing the Jui Nao or “new” canal, which here divides the gravel-covered foot hills from the alluvial flats of the Hari Rud plain. The crest of the outer ridges of this subsidiary range is about 700 ft. above the city, at a distance of 4 m. from it. For 28 m. farther the road winds first amongst the broken ridges of the Koh-i-Mulla Khwaja, then over the intervening dasht into the southern spurs of the Paropamisus to the Ardewan pass. This is the highest point it attains, and it has risen about 2150 ft. from Herat. From the pass it drops over the gradually decreasing grades of a wide sweep of Chol (which here happens to be locally free from the intersecting network of narrow ravines which is generally a distinguishing feature of Turkestan loess formations) for a distance of 35 m. into the Russian railway station, falling some 2700 ft. from the crest of the Paropamisus. To the south the road from Herat to India through Kandahar lies across an open plain, which presents no great engineering difficulties, but is of a somewhat waterless and barren character.
The city possesses five gates, two on the northern face, the Kutab-chak near the north-east angle of the wall, and the Malik at the re-entering angle of the Ark-i-nao; and three others in the centres of the remaining faces, the Irak gate on the west, the Kandahar gate on the south and the Kushk gate on the east face. Four streets called the Chahar-súk, running from the centre of each face, meet in the centre of the town in a small domed quadrangle. The principal street runs from the south or Kandahar gate to the market in front of the citadel, and is covered in with a vaulted roof through its entire length, the shops and buildings of this bazaar being much superior to those of the other streets, and the merchants’ caravanserais, several of which are spacious and well built, all opening out on this great thoroughfare. Near the central quadrangle of the city is a vast reservoir of water, the dome of which is of bold and excellent proportions. The only other public building of any consequence in Herat is the great mosque or Mesjid-i-Juma, which comprises an area of 800 yds. square, and must have been a most magnificent structure. It was erected towards the close of the 15th century, during the reign of Shah Sultan Hussein of the family of Timur, and is said when perfect to have been 465 ft. long by 275 ft. wide, to have had 408 cupolas, 130 windows, 444 pillars and 6 entrances, and to have been adorned in the most magnificent manner with gilding, carving, precious mosaics and other elaborate and costly embellishments. Now, however, it is falling rapidly into ruin, the ever-changing provincial governors who administer Herat having neither the means nor the inclination to undertake the necessary repairs. Neither the palace of the Charbagh within the city wall, which was the residence of the British mission in 1840–1841, nor the royal quarters in the citadel deserve any special notice. At the present day, with the exception of the Chahar-súk, where there is always a certain amount of traffic, and where the great diversity of race and costume imparts much liveliness to the scene, Herat presents a very melancholy and desolate appearance. The mud houses in rear of the bazaars are for the most part uninhabited and in ruins, and even the burnt brick buildings are becoming everywhere dilapidated. The city is also one of the filthiest in the East, as there are no means of drainage or sewerage, and garbage of every description lies in heaps in the open streets.
Along the slopes of the northern hills there is a space of some 4 m. in length by 3 m. in breadth, the surface of the plain, strewn over its whole extent with pieces of pottery and crumbling bricks, and also broken here and there by earthen mounds and
