TAKHT-i- RUSTAM 3: monolithic house (Cave at)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A circular and vaulted, sacred and man-made rock chamber (in Sanskrit: guha) in the focus of the ancient Buddhist temple complex which is currently known as –>Takht-i- Rustam and cut from solid limestone. SITUATION: West of Aybak (Haibak, Aibek), a few hundred yards from –>Rudaba's Apartment, and on the shoulder of a ridge facing west (MOORCROFT & TREBECK (1842, 2: 403-404). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1: MOORCROFT & TREBECK (1842, 2: 405) recorded that the cell … was about seven feet [2.1 m] in diameter; the passage [which gave access] about eight feet long by nearly six feet high and four broad [1.2 m wide, 1.8 m high, and 2.4 m long] and observed an acoustic peculiarity: It gave a loud echo to the sounds uttered in the cell. CAVE DESCRIPTION 2, TALBOT (1886: 344-345): … a rectangular house, also cut out of the solid rock. A doorway and passage from the south side leads into a circular domed chamber 6 feet [1.8 m] in diameter and 6 ft. 6 ins. [2 m] high… This central platform and house is qute perfect, and made with great care and neatness. CAVE DESCRIPTION 3, COON (1957a: 237-238) visited the site but failed to note the chamber. CAVE DESCRIPTION 4: LEVI (1972 edited 1984, 2000: 98): The local story is that Rustam used to sit and drink in a kiosk built on top of a stupa which is the shape of an enormous igloo carved downwards into solid rock, standing in a deep quarry-like pit. The kiosk on top is a square folly once supporting a sacred canopy, probably of about the fourth century A.D..