1 TOPOGRAPHY OF THE PUNJAUB. 7
2 above. The town itself is a mere wreck, an accu-
3 mulation of ruins of what once had been palaces,
4 old dilapidated houses, streets of unexampled
5 filthiness ; indeed the entire valley everywhere
6 presents evidences of faded splendour. Earth-
7 quakes, and the despoiling hand of man have
8 combined to reduce to a shapeless heap of ruins,
9 edifices that, previous to the Mahomedan inva-
10 sion, must have rivalled in their size, magni-
11 ficence, and very peculiar architecture of black
12 marble, the massive structures of which Egypt
13 and ancient Greece present so many traces.
14 PrEsHawor, like Kashmir, is a conquest from
15 the Affghans ; it fell to the arms of Runjeet Singh
16 about twenty years since, and is now annexed to
17 the dominions of the Punjaub. Separated from
18 Affghanistan Proper by the far-famed Khyber
19 Pass, a tolerable fortification has enabled the
20 Sikhs to retain it, but, excepting these defences,
21 there is nothing in the town to distinguish it
22 from the shapeless masses of decayed brickwork
23 which are found in and about all the other towns
24 in the Punjaub.
25 Lapaku, or Middle Thibet, and Iskardoh, com-
26 pletes in the north the possessions of the Sikhs,
27 as Mittun Khote may be said to terminate them
28 in the south. The former are situated respec-
29 tively in 32° and 35° of north latitude, longitude
30 79° and 75°, in the mountain regions which close