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203 The Arab historians call it Ummul-Bilad (the Mother of Cities). It was a great centre of commerce, a city of pilgrimage, Buddhist as well as Muslim, for many a century. But the city, which once covered a circuit of twenty miles, is now in ruins-a waste of ruins and many acres of debris-and the spectacle is extremely touching and awe-inspiring. Very little is left of the massive walls which once surrounded it. All that is left of it is a mound of dried mud, worn by weather into all manner of desolate and fantastic shapes. The whole of the northern portion is a heap of dust and debris. To the west three lofty arches still mark the remains of the Jama Masjid (Grand Mosque). The green cupola of the Masjid-i-Sabz (Green Mosque), and the arched entrance to the ruined Madressah (Academy) testify to the period of early Muslim occupation, as do the Top-i-Rustam and the Takht-i-Rustam (two ancient stupas) to the fervour of religious zeal with which its Buddhist inhabitants invested it in the early centuries of the Christian era. Next to the Bazaar is the shrine of Khoja Abu Nasr-i-Parsa, a Timurid building of the second half of the fifteenth century. The facade is tiled with colours confined to white and two shades of blue, with some touches of black. Behind it, the dome, melon-shaped and ribbed, is covered with a mosaic of tiny tiles glazed in greenish-turquoise hue. It is an excellent specimen of Timurid architecture. About the end of the fifteenth century because of the insalubrity of its climate Balkh began to be abandoned by the population in favour of Mazari-Sharif. Now the Afghan government, after some reclamation work, is trying with some success to revive Balkh by developing in the district the cultivation of cotton, and a new town is coming to life amongst the ruins.