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86
EAST ASIA.
whom he regards as the ancestors of the present Dungans. Chinese porcelains and
Buddhist statuettes are picked up amongst the ruins, and here are also a magnifi-
cent minaret and buildings resembling those of Samarkand. In the neighbour-
hood is the mosque of Mazar, "holier even than Mecca," with a chapel traditionally
of Nestorian origin.
The towns on the northern slope of the Tian-shan as far as the Urumtsi valley
are included in the province of Kansu. Barkul, so called from Lake Bar, which
occupies a depression in the plateau, supplements the strategical position
of Hami.
Fig.
33. OASES OF BABKKL AND HAMI.
According to Eafailov. Scale 1 : 1,600,000.
. SO Miles.
It is the first military and trading station on the route leading from Hami to the
Zungarian plains, and as the southern highways converge on Hami, so those of
the north unite at Barkul, the Chinsi-fu of the Chinese. It is a large place,
commanded by two fortresses, and surrounded by gardens and orchards. The
Kosheti-davan, one of the three passes connecting the two cities, has an elevation
of 9,100 feet above the sea, or about 5,300 above the surrounding oases. But this
is a very slight altitude compared with that of the passes opening farther west, in
the snowy range of Kongor-adzigan, while the Tian-shan cannot be turned towards