ELD 104 — Kilif

• The Illustrated London News, Vol. 86 (1885/1), April 4, p. 348: historical and geographical description of the Oxus; April 18, p. 410: engraving from a sketch by Captain Peacocke, “Kilif and the Oxus”; p. 429: description of the river and its boats at Kilif.
• Griesbach, C. L. (1886): Field-Notes from Afghanistan No. 3, p. 257: “The cliff above the head-land of the Kilif ferry (Afghan side) is composed of sandstones with alternating shell-limestone, dipping at an angle of about 60° below the blown sands of the great plain which stretches south of the river.”
• Lansdell, H. (1887): Through Central Asia, p. 629: “On the 12th of June, with the thermo-meter at more than 100° in the shade, the Commission commenced the survey of the left bank of the Amu-daria, or Oxus, to Kilif, the Russians also surveying the right and left banks to Chushk Guzar.”
• Peacocke, W (1887): Records of Intelligence Party ABC, Vol. 3, pp. 96-103 (January 26, 1885): Detailed description of the first ABC reconnaissance visit to Khamiab and Kilif, with two sketches of Kilif. “At Kilif the river Oxus is confined in a single channel, at the present date 330 yards wide. An isolated narrow low limestone ridge, which extends about 5 miles in a southwest direction into the desert, here abuts close on the left bank, ending in two promontories about 400 yards apart, which enclose between them a narrow rocky ravine. A narrow strip of beach lies between the foot of the westernmost promontory and the water, while from the foot of the easternmost a narrow rock ledge juts out into the stream. […] On the downstream side of the two rocky ledges, which at the eastern end of the narrows project from either bank into the stream, are two small bays, one on each bank, forming little natural harbours, and between these bays the ferry has been established. […] The rock ledge on the south bank is 10 feet to 20 feet high near the point, and its down-stream side has been cut away and revetted with brick to form a landing-stage, alongside which the ferry-boats lie. On the top of the ledge are several small houses in which the ferrymen live. […]”
• Yate, A.C. (1887): Travels with the Afghan Boundary Commission, p. 263: description of the Oxus in the Kilif region, “[…] The trough of the river Oxus here is of great breadth and in its centre lie at this season great mud-flats, which, during the floods which commence in April and subside in September, are entirely or mostly submerged. On either bank of the river, between the flood-level and the desert, is a strip of very fertile soil varying from two to three miles in breadth. […]”; pp. 265-266: description of Kilif; p. 266: the boats at Kilif are mentioned.
• Yate, C.E. (1888): Northern Afghanistan or Letters from the Afghan Boundary Commission, p. 242: Kilif is mentioned; pp. 251-253: description of the visit of Kilif in July 1886; pp. 252-253: “The Oxus a Kilif passes through some rocky ridges running down from the Koh-i-Tan mountain in Bokhara, and its bed is consequently very much narrowed there: the average breadth is only about half a mile, while at the ferry, from point to point of the rocks, the distance is only 540 yards. Kilif itself stands on the Bokhara side, and consists of a small picturesque-looking fort on a rocky mound just at the water’s edge, with a bazaar and village behind it. On the Afghan side there is no village or cultivation of any kind, nothing but the huts of the few boatmen built out on the projecting spit of rock behind which their three boats are sheltered. Two bluffs, some 400 yards apart, overhang the river, each of which apparently was fortified in olden days; but the western bluff has nothing on it now but a ziarat, while the fortifications on the eastern one are all in ruins: so apparently the little fort opposite was too much for them. The ferry is the chief attraction of the place, and great was the interest taken in it both by us and all our men. […] Nowhere else have I ever heard of such a ferry and yet the arrangement seems wonderfully simple and easy. […] Another boat, that was brought out for Captain Griesbach to photograph, had four horses attached to it, and I presume that is the maximum. The boats are very heavy, being made of logs rather than of planks, and about 35 feet in length by 12 or so in breadth. […]”
• Holdich, T.H. (1901): The Indian Borderland, f.p. 161: drawing of the Kilif ferry; pp. 160-161: “Kilif Fort is a queer picturesque pile of red buildings hanging about an isolated rock bordering the northern banks of the river. Here the bed narrows considerably, and immediately opposite Kilif are some bold rocky hills, which contain many quaint relics of past days when the ‘alaman’ was the normal method of enlivening existence.”
• General Staff, India (1914): Military Report on Afghanistan: “Plate 9 – The Oxus river at Kelif, both banks from the west.” Print of this lithograph.
• Adamec, L.W. (1979): Mazar-i-Sharif and north-central Afghanistan, pp. 356-360: Kilif or Keleft.
• Ball, W. (1981): Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan, p. 163: Kilif, “An extremely rich area of surface sites in the dunes to the south of the river. […] There are also remains of fortifications on the northern end of the hills overlooking the river, and some low mounds with a surface scatter of baked bricks.”

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