3-065-966 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Yarkund Mission: the city of Kashgar, 1874. Engraving from a sketch by Captain E. F. Chapman, made during '...the diplomatic expedition of Mr. T. Douglas Forsyth...to the sequestered East Turkish country..., beyond the Karakorum or Tsung-Ling mountain ranges...Captain Chapman [writes:] "The time when the present city was constructed is not easily determined from the records. They vary in fixing the destruction of the ancient city at dates ranging from five centuries to two thousand years ago. This event, however, is associated with the Mogul invasion under Timour. From the condition of the ruins of the old citadel, we may believe it was replaced by the present Kashgar in the fourteenth century. Portions of the walls and bastion-towers now standing lead one to picture an extensive inclosure with very formidable fortifications, in possession of the Chengiz Tartars when the army of Timour came down and laid siege to it...If the Turkish legend is to be believed, the solid walls of ancient Kashgar defied the efforts of the invaders a whole year, and, but for the turning of a branch of the river Kizil, the waters of which the mighty conqueror made use of to effect a breach, the garrison might have resisted during an indefinite period".' From "Illustrated London News", 1874.