t. A great many
fragments of pottery with angular geometrical patterns and small circles
upon them were to be found here and in the neighbourhood.

The fort of Kala-i-Dukhtar is attributed by the people to King Ardishir,
and is one of the three mentioned by Mukaddasi in the tenth century, who,
in describing the city of Bardasir, unmistakably identified with the
present Kerman, speaks of the three famous impregnable castles--the
_Hisn_ defended by a ditch, evidently the one above described, directly
outside the city gate, and the old castle, the Kala-i-Kuh, on the crest
of the hill. It has been assumed that the third castle mentioned by
Mukaddasi, was where the _Ark_ or citadel is now, but personally I doubt
whether this is correct. The citadel, the residence of the present
Governor, is to my mind of much more recent origin. There is every sign
to make one doubt whether Kerman extended in those days as far west as
the citadel, which to-day occupies the most western point outside the
city; whereas in the accounts of Mukaddasi one would be led to understand
that the third fortress was well within the city near a great mosque. In
Persian chronicles, too, the Hill Castle, the old, and the new castles
are often referred to, but personally I believe that these three castles
were adjoining one another on the same chain of hills.

An ascent to the Kala Ardeshir well repays the trouble of getting there.
It is not possible to reach the Castle from the south side, where the
rocky hills are very precipitous, and even from the north it is not easy
of access. On the north-west side, facing the British Consulate, there is
a somewhat narrow and slippery track in the rock along a ravine, by
which--in many places "on all fours"--one can get up to the top.

The gateway is very much blocked with sand, but squeezing through a small
aperture one can get inside the wall, within which are several small
courts, and a series of tumbled-down small buildings. In the walls can
still be seen some of the receptacles in which grain and food were
formerly stored.

[Illustration: Graveyard and Kala-i-Dukhtar or Virgin Fort, Kerman.]

Although the exterior of the castle, resting on the solid rock and built
of sun-dried bricks so welded together by age as to form a solid mass,
appears in fair preservation from a distance, when one examines the
interior it is found to be in a dreadful state of decay. The courts and
spaces between the walls are now fille