City of Death

The shrunken modern world still has pockets of mystery. One of the most mysterious is the Dash-ti-Margo (Desert of Death) in southwestern Afghanistan, where the summer heat rises to 125DEG F., and the sand-laden wind reaches 90 m.p.h. Last week Anthropologist Walter A. Fairservis of New York City's American Museum of Natural History told how in the midst of Dash-ti-Margo he and two associates had come upon a dead city forgotten by the modern world.

Toward sundown one August day Fairservis began to look for a place to camp, and spotted far in the distance what seemed to be a town. As his jeep-borne party headed toward the spot, more & more mud-brick buildings rose into view above the horizon. Shortly they stood before an imposing ruin whose walls surrounded an area of at least 30 square miles, whose buildings must have housed and served a population of 100,000.

With mounting amazement, the anthropologists drove through the silent streets between crumbling mosques, forts and palaces. They found no footprints, no campfire ashes, no signs that modern men had ever entered the place. The only living creature they saw was a desert viper.

Sudden Departure. For eight thirsty days Mr. Fairservis and his companions explored the dead city, collecting domestic utensils (knives and pottery) from mud-walled kitchens. In many of the buildings the roof-timbers were still in place. Apparently the city had not been burned or otherwise damaged by invaders. It seems to have been abandoned peacefully and rather suddenly. To judge by the architecture, its last inhabitants were Moslems, but certain decorative details show Greek influence. Mr. Fairservis hopes that its ruins may hide Greek manuscripts preserved by the dry climate.

The city's nearest neighbors, a handful of primitive tribesmen, know almost nothing about it and avoid it in superstitious fear. They call it Peshawarun, and believe it was abandoned centuries ago when invaders cut the irrigation ditches bringing water from the mountains. The inhabitants fled 700 miles northeast, locals claim, to found the city of Peshawar.

Dry Wells. Anthropologist Fairservis doubts the theory. He found that the city got its water not from.distant mountains but from many now dry wells, 60 feet deep, inside the walls. He thinks that a river changed its course, lowering the water table and making the city uninhabitable.

Mr. Fairservis guesses roughly that the city, unlisted on maps or by historians, so far as he knows, died "about the time of the Crusades" (11th to 13th Centuries A.D.). Next summer he intends to go back with a staff of archeologists, to give the city its correct ancient name and its place in the stream of history.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.