Below is a short newspaper article from 1900 regarding the discovery of an ancient underground city in Turkestan, near Bokhara (Bukhara). The photograph to the left
was not part of the original article -- it is an old postcard showing an elder from Bokhara.
The Russians have made a singular discovery in Central Asia. In Turkestan, on the right bank of the Amour Daria, is a chain of rocky hills near the Bokharan town of Karki, and a number of large caves, which upon examination were found to lead to an underground city, built apparently long before the Christian era. In Popular Science News we find the following description of this singular city:
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 before the birth of Christ.
The underground Bokharan city is a little over a mile 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 the like In some of the streets falls of earth and rock have obstructed the passages, but generally the visitor can walk about without so much us lowering his head.
The high degree of civilization 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 metal 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, pronged an entire population with a refuge from the incursions of nomadic savages and robbers.
Davenport Weekly Leader, Aug. 17, 1900.
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