Page 33

18 and unprofitable. The mightiest of the Sulaiman Mountains is the one which is called Takht-i-Sulaiman (Soloman's Throne). It may be seen on the western horizon from Dera Ismail Khan against the evening sky—a grey, flat-looking rampart rising from the lower line of mountains north and south of it, slightly depressed or saddle-backed in the middle, but culminating in a well-defined peak at its northern extremity. Such is the appear- ance of the Takht (the peak) from afar. It is difficult to approach it for reason of the steepness of the cliffs and the scarps which surround it. Central Afghanistan (or Hazarajat) is to a very large extent a land of difficult hills and deep and rugged defiles. These numerous subsidiary ranges run mostly parallel to each other, and some of them extend as far as Kandahar. One exceptionally long spur forms the steep Khojak Range, which has been pierced to allow a branch of the N.W. Railway to reach the Afghan frontier at New Chaman. The Tirband-i-Turkestan.—This most important range lies south of Maimanah. It is about 120 miles long, and runs roughly parallel to the Firoz Koh. Its highest peak, Zangolak, reaches a height of 11,590 feet. Passes Leading to the Indus Basin.—The mountain ranges forming the eastern boundary of modern Afghanistan are pierced at many places by passes across which invading hordes have poured in all ages to take possession of the fertile valleys below. They have also been the chief commercial links between the sub-continent of pre-partitioned India and Afghanistan from time immemorial. Most of these passes have been formed by the valleys of the rivers flowing towards the Indus, and are generally named after these tributaries. The most famous among these,