DOWLAT YAR (Caves at)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A row of five or six decayed man-made caves (probably rock chambers of Buddhist origin), which are excavated from sandstone about 10 vertical metres above the valley floor of the river -Heri- (Hari rud), reported SIMPSON (in LAESSOE 1886: 95) from a situation opposite Dowlutabad [note 1], which may be about 10 miles [circa 15 km] south [sic! for: east?] of Sarakhs [note 2]. They are in a sandstone scarp, about a quarter or half a mile from where the undulating ground sinks finally down into the great level plain of Central Asia. CAVE DESCRIPTION: There may be about five or six caves at this spot; they are all on the same level, maybe thirty feet above the bank of the river. Being visible from Dowlutabad … [William Simpson] found it impossible to ascend to them. There is a mass of rock in front which may at one time have been a stair, and there might have been a means of communication to them from above … There was a small opening in the rock, which, from its size and position, I took o be a window, giving light to a cave, the entrance to which would be from one of the caves alongside.A row of five or six decayed man-made caves (probably rock chambers of Buddhist origin), which are excavated from sandstone about 10 vertical metres above the valley floor of the river -Heri- (Hari rud), reported SIMPSON (in LAESSOE 1886: 95) from a situation opposite Dowlutabad [note 1], which may be about 10 miles [circa 15 km] south [sic! for: east?] of Sarakhs [note 2]. They are in a sandstone scarp, about a quarter or half a mile from where the undulating ground sinks finally down into the great level plain of Central Asia. CAVE DESCRIPTION: There may be about five or six caves at this spot; they are all on the same level, maybe thirty feet above the bank of the river. Being visible from Dowlutabad … [William Simpson] found it impossible to ascend to them. There is a mass of rock in front which may at one time have been a stair, and there might have been a means of communication to them from above … There was a small opening in the rock, which, from its size and position, I took o be a window, giving light to a cave, the entrance to which would be from one of the caves alongside.