TAKHT-i- RUSTAM 1: tunnelcave 1 (Cave at)
36.245800,68.021700
Description
The first of the two modified natural caves in limestone which give access to the surprising stupa at –>Takht-i- Rustam in the west of Haibak (Aybak). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1: MOORCROFT (1842, 2: 404) recorded a vaulted passage through the … rock . CAVE DESCRIPTION 2: TALBOT (1886b: 345, ground plan and section on plate 9 opposite page 344) says access is had … by two passages cut in the rock on the west side [of the stupa –>Takht-i- Rustam]. The northern of these issues at some 6 feet [1.8 m] above the level of the ditch, fro what object I cannot conceive; the other issues are at the level of the bottom of the ditch. These passages issue from the ditch on to a platform cut out of the rock. CAVE DESCRIPTION 3 (YATE 1888: 322): … a wide tunnel in the hillside. CAVE DESCRIPTION 4 (COON 1957a: 237-238): A tunnel that had been a natural cave. CAVE DESCRIPTION 5: (LEVI 1972 edited 1984, 2000: 98): Two natural rock tunnels made regular by cutting.
Documents
Bibliography 06/01/2018History
EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1824.09.06: William Moorcroft and friends visited (MOORCROFT & TREBECK 1841, 2: 402-407). 1885, November - December: M.G. TALBOT (1886b: 344-347, plate 9), writing on 2nd March 1886, explored, surveyed, mapped. 1954.04.05: Carlton Stevens COON (1957a, 1957b) and Mrs. (Elizabeth 'Lisa' K. Ralph) from the University of Pennsylvania Museum expedition to Afghanistan 1954 visited in company with Mohammed Nader Saweri Khan, then Inspector of the Antiquities Department of the Ministry of Education (Kabul), the geologist Henry 'Hank' W. Coulter jr. and the interpreter Mohammed Nader Saweri (COON 1957a: 238). 1970: Peter LEVI (1972 edited 1984, 2000: 98, 2002) in company with Bruce Chatwin, visited.