Skip to main content

ELD 057 — British and Afghan Camps at Gulran

Sepia-toned photo-lithograph of a wash sketch, showing on the left margin the remains of brickwork of the old keep of Gulran with the ditch in front of it. In the right background the tents of the ABC are visible.
[Sketch, recto:] GULRAN / E D / 84 // BRITISH AND AFGHAN CAMPS AT GULRAN. [text printed on the lower margin, not on a strip of paper]
[Sketch, verso:] (43) / Genl. Lumsden’s Camp – British & Afghan Camps at Gulran. / March 5th 85.
[Lumsden Album:] Cutting from C.E. Yate: Northern Afghanistan, p. 68.
[List:] not mentioned.
  • Charles, R. (1885): Diary written when in charge of the ½ Field Hospital and Escort with the Afghan Boundary Commission, 13th March, 1885, fol. 29 R: “Changed site of camp to near Old Gulran about 6 miles nearer the Parapomisus. Marched at 11 a.m. Today the Hospital, Infantry & Commissariat encamped at the new ground – remainder to come on tomorrow. […] The road lay over a level plain along left bank of stream. Bed of this brook at Old Gulran is of gravel, the water at present is somewhat muddy […]”
  • Owen, Charles (1884-86): Transcript of diary and letters, p. 333: “6 Nov [1885] Friday. Marched at 7.10 am for Gulran reached camp about 10.10 am 12 miles. Road sandy and covered with asafoetida. […] Gulran looks very different from when we left it, all brown and dried up. […]”
  • Lumsden, P. (1885): Countries and Tribes bordering on the Koh-i-Baba Range, p. 562: “The marks of watercourses point out the lines of ancient channels, whilst in many places karezes, that is subterranean canals, indicate a stat of past prosperity, and extensive cultivation. Towers and walls still existing of forts, show that even in those far distant days property required protection; and, as on the site of the old castle of Gulran, the skulls and skeletons scattered over it seem to indicate that indiscriminate slaughter must frequently have attended the destruction of localities long since untenanted.”
  • Yate, A.C. (1887): Travels with the Afghan Boundary Commission, p. 231: “[…] Gulran is reported to be a most fertile spot, with abundance of good water and excellent soil. It is also a central and important point, in that there converge almost all the roads of Badkis, whether from the north, south, east, or west. It is a place possibly with a future. […]”; p. 306: “[…] Gulran is not on the Khushk river, but about 50 miles due west of the town of Khushk, and 30 miles east of Toman Aka on the Hari Rud, and north of the Paropamisus. It is a broad plain covered with the ruins and traces of ancient habitations. […]”
  • Maitland, P.J. (1888): Records of Intelligence Party ABC, Vol. 1, p. 156 (Dec. 2, 1884): “At about 20 miles passed old Gulran. There are mounds here to the left of the road, and what looks like the remains of an old fort. Also a graveyard, with several upright slab tombstones. The remains are said to extend for several miles to the north-west.”; p. 253 (March 5, 1885): “[…] From the top we could see the ruined fort and the tents near it. The bed of the salt stream is here wide and reedy. Two miles more brought us to the Head-Quarters camp pitched in the angle between the streams, on rather low ground. Small Afghan camps of sorts are dotted about, some on the other side of the Asia Dev water, […]”
  • Yate, C.E. (1888): Northern Afghanistan, p. 68: description of the site of Gulran: “[…] At Gulran there is the ruin of an old mud-fort, the ditch of which is some 150 yards square, with an outer line of walls, now simply a mound, 30 feet above it, and the old keep, a square building about 30 yards across, above that again in the centre of all. Who it belonged to who can tell? […]”
  • Aitchison, J. E.T. (1889): A Summary of the Botanical Features, pp. 429-430: botanical features at Gulran.
  • Holdich, T.H. (1901): The Indian Borderland, p. 127: “Winter was hardly over by the middle of February. Snow lay about in patches, and the mud on the country tracks was knee-deep. It was bitterly cold, and the counter march through the Chol to Gulran was not made without difficulties and some loss of followers. There was no time to be lost, and we pushed on through those wintry days with a weary, straggling line of half-numbered people, frequently finding it impossible to collect dry sticks enough for a fire to warm ourselves, or to cook our food. […]”
  • Adamec, L.W. (1975): Herat and north-western Afghanistan, pp. 146-148: “The position of Gulran renders it a point of considerable importance. […] The country all about here is exceedingly fertile. It is a common saying that the soil of Gulran is like gold. […] Below Gulran the valley varies in width from ½ to 1 ½ miles, is flat and smooth and good going in dry weather, but would be heavy in wet.”
  • Moran, N.K. (2005): Kipling and Afghanistan, pp. 46-47: “As it gradually became apparent that the Russians were unlikely to send their Commissioner, the British decided to move to a location that would offer better lines of communication to Persia and India. On February 15 the commission departed for Gulran, or Gulrin, ostensibly to guard the direct roads of approach from Badghis to the capital of western Afghanistan. Ridgeway, assisted by Merk, Owen and Yate, remained at Penjdeh with an armed escort as a symbol of the British presence. The rest of the Commission arrived at Gulran on February 23.”; p. 53: “This site was strategically chosen as being within the disputed territory of Badghis, on the line of march toward Herat.”
Image No.
ELD 057
Collection
Afghan Boundary Commission 1884-86
Series
ABC 5, ELD Sketches 054 to 107
Format
Original wash sketch, British Library WD 401, size 320/470 mmLithograph in the Lumsden Album 324/472 mm(almost original size)
Place, date
Gulran, March 5, 1885
Descriptors
  • 1.57 Pictures of Landscapes, Cities
  • 1.64 Travel Books before 1914
  • 2.123 Herat and NW-Afghanistan
  • 3.711 Academic Painting
  • 4.365 Abdur Rahman Khan (1880-1901)
  • 4.416 GB Relations with Great Britain
  • 4.85 Civil use of the Military
  • Latitude / Longitude35.156637 / 61.736330
    Google Earth35°07ʹ N / 61°41ʹ E / 720 m
    Survey of India MapSheet 29, Herat (1916): Gulran, J 73

    You know more about this picture?

    Write to us!