C<^ «<S^ ti^ Ci^ C,!^ «(^ <<^ <<iS^ Ci^

AMANULLAH

And, probing among the ruins of old Kabul, he
rediscovered the traces of ancient civilisation which
proved that Kabul figured in history fully two thousand
years before Julius Caesar brought his legions to Albion.
Ariana was the name of the wild, inhospitable country
in those days, and it is remarkable that among the
names of the provinces constituting the region so named,
there was one named Gandhara, changed only by an
initial letter to-day into the Province of Kandahar.

Alexander's name figured largely* There are ruins
to-day, in the district which must have been the scene
of his triumphs, which bear his name, Herat is named
after him. Occupying that city, he advanced upon
Kabul from the north-west, Kandahar falling to him
and giving him the last link in a circle round the capital.

In the north, the point where Alexander forded his
legions across the Oxus is still remembered by his name.
This ford is regarded as of major strategical importance,
and when he had conquered thus far, we can imagine
that the Kabulis had terror in their hearts at the
approach of one whose fighting fame was stretching
across the world*

The guide, showing Amanullah the famous ford,
would point to certain marks in the rocks, as he does
to this day, averring that these are the footprints of
Alexander, and represent the key position to the whole
of the East.

Kabul fell, after a night when Alexander gazed down
from the hills, from a point where to-day the motor
cars of foreign visitors sweep through a defile along a
modern if dangerous road. Then he struck, and yet
one more bloody chapter was written in Kabul's history*

But India, the goal of his ambitions, was not to be
Greek, for Alexander died, and his successors, forgetting
the importance of the Kabul valleys as their base,

82