3-082-576 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Chitral Expedition: the Fort of Mastuj, in the Chitral Valley, 1895. Engraving from a photograph supplied by Sir William Lockhart. 'Mastuj appears with the same style of walls and towers as those in Chitral. The valley at Mastuj is described as being for many miles with an average of a mile or three quarters of a mile in breadth. The route from Gilgit to Mastuj, along which Colonel Kelly, as telegrams inform us, has successfully passed, and is moving to the relief of Dr. Robertson in Chitral, leads in a westerly direction along the Gilgit River, then up the Kho Valley to the Shandur Pass, which is 12,000 ft. above the sea. This pass is a plateau about five miles in extent, and perfectly level...A little to the west of the plateau is the town of Sar Lashpur, from which the pass is at times named. A stream called the Lashpur flows past, and runs down the valley to Mastuj. Gasht is on this river, where Colonel Kelly with his force attacked the enemy, and, although they were two to one against him, he forced a passage, and reached Mastuj: this relieved Captain Brererton, who had been closely invested for eighteen days'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.