Samarkand

We crossed portions of the red desert and the black desert on caravan
tracks through a wilderness of unwatered land.   The sun is closer to the earth
here and the heat at midday is terrific.  I washed my tunic one-day and
after walking a thousand paces it was totally dry.  Here horses must be
treated carefully or they will die.  They have a large hairy draught animal
with two mounds on its back called "camel", which endureth the heat well.
Rus and other foreign travelers suffer greatly in height of the day, but
local Musselmen, Persians and Turks can endure hard work even to noon.

After a time we came to a place called Samarkand in a shallow valley with a
rivulet which passes for a river in these parts.  It is, or rather was, a
great city that King Alexander once conquered, of which he said,
"Everything I have heard of Marakanda is true, except that it is more beautiful
than I imagined".    When we arrived we saw what at first appeared to be low and
broken hills of mudstone.   Upon drawing close we understood that before us
were the ruins of 300 acres of houses, wherein no stone remained upon
another stone.  Here too were bones and skulls and wreck everywhere--  for
what we saw before us was wrought by Genghis Khan more than sixty years
ago.  It is worse even than Kiev, since no attempt has been made to rebuild and
no change to the death beyond wind and weather.

We walked among the sad ruins.  Only one building remains, this in the
graveyard of Shahr-I-Zindah,  being the tomb of the cousin of the Musselman
profit, named Qusam ibn-Abbas.  Why Ghenghis Khan spared this shrine, I do
not know.   We saw also ruins of a palace from a time when the people of
the city were idol worshipers.  Here are the remains of a very beautiful mural
with rich blue pigments showing ambassadors from every nation even to the
land of India paying tribute the king.   But the roof is caved and burnt
and much of it covered with soil.

Three miles from these ruins merchants have set up a market, temples and
caravanasari.  Under Mongol rule travel is now perfectly safe and
expeditious if one has a safe conduct tablet from the Khan.  Merchants again
ply the routes from Rus, Byzantium and the Levant along to the land of Idol
Worshippers in the South and the land of the Mongols in the East.
Mayhap, with time, this city may rise again; though doubtful am I that its
former glory ever be recovered.