Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1895 — An Underground City. [ARTICLE]

An Underground City.

The Russians have made a singular discovery in Central Asia. In Turkestan, on the right bank of the Amon Daria, is a chain of rocky hills near the Bokharan town of Karld, and a number of large caves which, upon examination, were* found to leud to an underground city, built apparently long before the Christian era. According to effigies, inscriptions and designs upon the gold and silver money unearthed from among the ruins, the existence of the town dates back to some two centuries B. 0. The underground Bokharan city is about two versts long, and is composed of an enormous labyrinth of corridors, streets and squares, surrounded by houses and other buildings two or three stories high. The edifices contain all kinds of domestic utensils, pots, urns, vases, and so forth. In some of the streets falls of earth and rock have obstructed the passages, but, generally, the visitor can walk about freely without so much as lowering his head. The high degree of civilisation attained by the inhabitants of the city Is shown by the fact that they built in several stories, by the symmetry of the streets and squares, and by the beauty of the baked clay and tnetal utensils, and of the ornaments and coins which have been found. It is supposed that long centuries ago this city, so carefully concealed in the bowels of the earth, provided an entire population with a refuge from the incursions of nomadic savages and robbers.