kurgan, and heaps all round Urgenj. Very few are
known even by name, though one remarkable thing is
that amongst the débris are found broken pieces of
glass, which Kuhn says is not the case among the ruins
in the adjoining Syr-daria province, though found at
Samarkand, and suggested as being of Chinese origin.
I have thus entered somewhat fully into particulars
concerning this former capital of Kharezm and its
ruins, because they are the most ancient erections I
saw in the khanate. Not, however, that Urgenj was
always, or first, the capital, for Arabian geographers
(quoted in Howorth) give this honour to Kat, the ruins
of which have been found on the right bank of the Oxus,
near Sheikh Abbas Vali. Pinkerton gives a list of the
provinces, and Vambery o f the towns and villages, of
Khiva. O f inhabited points there remain two others
which should be noticed in connection with the north
o f the Oasis— I mean Khojeili and Kungrad.
Both were at one time connected with Kunia Urgenj
by the Oxus, and communication was by water, but
the journey has now to be made by road.* From
* Speaking- generally of the land communications of Khiva, one may
say there are no properly-made roads, but since my baggage was
carted from the Amu to the capital, and thence to Kunia, the reader
will have perceived that the tracks are practicable for wheels. They
are caravan routes.; sometimes exceedingly wide, but often very narrow
between the canals, and generally rough. Six of these caravan routes
branch out from Khiva : one on the south to Merv ; another eastward
to Hazarasp ; a third to Hanki ; a fourth to the north-east to New
Urgenj, and thence all along the west bank of the Amu, touching Gurlen,
Manghit, Kipchak, and on to Khojeili and Kungrad ; another leaves
Khiva on the north -west to Gazavat, and through the district watered
by the aryk of that name, to Zmukshir, whence it bifurcates on the
left across the desert, and on the right to Iliali. The main road appears
to be that we followed, which throws off a branch beyond Kosh Kupyiyk,
through the modern Kiat to Gurlen ; the other continues to Tashauz’.
Other routes leave it on the right at Iliali, and beyond, but they lead to
no large towns.
Kunia Urgenj radiate three routes: one to the left
towards Sary Kamysh ; another to the north-west
mounting the elevation of the Ust-Urt at Spusk-kum-
djul, or Aibugir ; and a third route, 20 miles long, to
Khojeili. This town was visited by Vambery, who
approached it on the third day, floating from Khiva on
the Oxus ; and Kuhn accompanied the Orenburg
division there by land from Kunia Urgenj. The latter
describes Khojeili as about a mile from the Amu, in
the midst of gardens and not fortified, situated on
both banks of an aryk spanned by a bridge. In the
suburbs are many havlis, or farm-houses. The town
has a large bazaar, 300 shops and workshops, 5 mosques,
with as many schools, one medresse, and one caravansary.
The proximity of Khojeili to the Amu facilitated
the establishment of a fish trade, and, in 1873,
there were a great many boat-loads of dried fish,
principally carp and silurus, taken from the neighbourhood
to Bokhara, costing at Khojeili from 6s. to gs.,
and selling at Bokhara from 12s. to 185. per cwt.,
and thence it is carried inland as far as Shahr-i-sabz.
“ Khojeili’' means the “ home of Khojas,” who abound
in the town.*
À propos of Khojeili being a town of saints, I may
observe that land in this region has been given for a
settlement to a body of Christians, called Mennonites,
the party of whom we heard first at Aulie Ata, and in
whose track we afterwards followed, t They travelled
Tradition says, according to Kuhn, that 600 years ago a Khoja,
named Aliamin, settled here, and in course of time some Kirghese and
Uzbegs joined him ; but Howorth would suggest for the place a greater
antiquity, and imagines that it may be the site of the ancient Tuk, so
often mentioned by Abul Ghazi, who says that from the ramparts of Tuk
Urgenj could be seen in the distancé to the south-west.
t Their story, given me in part by one of themselves, is that they are