and the Karak pirates whose depredations led to the invasion of India and the conquest of Sind, seem to have disappeared altogether. The fourth section includes the valleys formed by the Rakshan and Mashkel, which, sweeping downwards from the Kalat highlands and the Persian border east and west, unite to break through the intervening chain of hills northward to form the Mashkel swamps, and define the northern limits of Makran. In these valleys are narrow strips of very advanced cultivation, the dates of Panjgur being generally reckoned superior even to those of the Euphrates. The great Mashkel swamp and the Kharan desert to the east of it, mark the flat phase of southern Baluchistan topography. It is geologically part of an ancient inland lake or sea which included the present swamp regions of the Helmund, but not the central depression of the Lora. The latter is buttressed against hills at a much higher elevation than the Kharan desert, which is separated from the great expanse of the Helmund desert within the borders of Afghanistan by a transverse band of serrated hills forming a distinct watershed from Nushki to Seistan. Here and there these jagged peaks appear as if half overwhelmed by an advancing sea of sand. They are treeless and barren, and water is but rarely found at the edges of their foothills. The Koh-i-Sultan, at the western extremity of the northern group of these irregular hills, is over 6000 ft. above sea-level, but the general level of the surrounding deserts is only about 2000 ft., sinking to 1500 ft. in the Mashkel Hamun and the Gaod-i-Zirreh. The whole of this country has been surveyed by Indian surveyors and the boundary between Persian and British Baluchistan was demarcated by a commission in 1895-1896. In 1898 a column of British troops under Colonel Mayne was despatched to Makran by sea, owing to a rebellion against the authority of the khan of Kalat, and an attack made by some Makran chiefs on a British survey party. The campaign was short and terminated with the capture of the Kej citadel. Another similar expedition was required in 1901 to storm the fort at Nodiz. The headquarters of the native governor, under the khan of Kalat, are at Turbat, with deputies at Tump, Kolwa, Pasni and Panjgur. A levy corps, with two British officers, is stationed along the western frontier. The port of Gwadur forms an enclave belonging to the sultan of Muscat. _Baluchistan District Gazetteer_, vol. vii. (Bombay, 1907). (T. H. H.*) MAKSOORA, the term in Mahommedan architecture given to the sanctuary or praying-chamber in a mosque, which was sometimes enclosed with a screen of lattice-work; the word is occasionally used for a similar enclosure round a tomb.