Kandahar, which is 125 miles from Quetta and only 65 miles from the railhead at New Chaman, is the last place where an army advancing from Herat towards the Indus would halt. It also affords access to the Ghazni and Kabul roads through the Tarnak valley, and its proximity to the deserts of Baluchistan on the south renders at least one of its flanks safe from being turned. It is very accessible from Persia in the west and from India in the east, while it has changed hands so frequently during the period of its history--Persians, Uzbegs, Afghans and in recent times the English--that a further change is certainly to be anticipated. Kandahar is situated between the Argand and Tarnak rivers on a level plain covered with cultivation and well populated to the south and west; on the north-west a low ridge rises to the height of 1000 feet. The shape of the city is an irregular parallelogram, the length being from north to south with a circuit of 3 miles, 1006 yards. It is surrounded by a ditch, 24 feet wide and 10 feet deep, and by a wall which is 20½ feet thick at the bottom, 14½ feet thick at the top and 27 feet in height. This wall is made of mud hardened by exposure to the sun and without revetment of stone or brick. The length of the western face is 1967 yards, of the eastern 1810 yards, of the southern 1345 yards and of the northern 1164 yards. There are four main gates, through which run the principal streets and two minor gates. The Bar Durani and Kabul are on the eastern face, the Shikarpur on the southern face, the Herat and the Top Khana on the western face and the Idgah on the northern face. The Bar Durani and the Top Khana are the minor gates. The gateways are defended by six double bastions and the angles are protected by four large circular towers. The curtains between the bastions have fifty-four small bastions distributed along the faces. From the Herat gate a street runs to the Kabul gate through the city; commencing from the Shikarpur gate and crossing it at right angles near the centre, another leads to the citadel, which is square-built with walls 260 yards in length. [Illustration: PLAN OF KANDAHAR]