He made a smaller garden, out beyond Chihil Sitūn and towards Kohik, also having a building in it. In the open gallery of this building he placed a great stone throne, some 14 or 15 yards (_qārī_) long, some 8 yards wide and perhaps 1 yard high. They brought a stone so large by a very long road.[383] There is a crack in the middle of it which people say must have come after it was brought here. In the same [Sidenote: Fol. 47b.] garden he also built a four-doored hall, know as the Chīnī-khāna (Porcelain House) because its _īzāra_[384] are all of porcelain; he sent to China for the porcelain used in it. Inside the walls again, is an old building of his, known as the Masjid-i-laqlaqa (Mosque of the Echo). If anyone stamps on the ground under the middle of the dome of this mosque, the sound echoes back from the whole dome; it is a curious matter of which none know the secret. In the time also of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā the great and lesser begs laid out many gardens, large and small.[385] For beauty, and air, and view, few will have equalled Darwesh Muḥammad Tarkhān's Chār-bāgh (Four Gardens).[386] It lies overlooking the whole of Qulba Meadow, on the slope below the Bāgh-i-maidān. Moreover it is arranged symmetrically, terrace above terrace, and is planted with beautiful _nārwān_[387] and cypresses and white poplar. A most agreeable sojourning place, its one defect is the want of a large stream. Samarkand is a wonderfully beautified town. One of its specialities, perhaps found in few other places,[388] is that the different trades are not mixed up together in it but each has its own _bāzār_, a good sort of plan. Its bakers and its cooks are good. The best paper in the world is made there; the water for the paper-mortars[389] all comes from Kān-i-gil,[390] a meadow on the banks of the Qarā-sū (Blackwater) or Āb-i-raḥmat (Water of Mercy). [Sidenote: Fol. 48.] Another article of Samarkand trade, carried to all sides and quarters, is cramoisy velvet. Excellent meadows lie round Samarkand. One is the famous Kān-i-gil, some 2 miles east and a little north of the town. The Qarā-sū or Āb-i-raḥmat flows through it, a stream (with driving power) for perhaps seven or eight mills. Some say the original name of the meadow must have been Kān-i-ābgīr (Mine of Quagmire) because the river is bordered by quagmire, but the histories all write Kān-i-gil (Mine of clay). It is an excellent meadow. The Samarkand sulṯans always made it their reserve,[391] going out to camp in it each year for a month or two. Higher up (on the river) than Kān-i-gil and to the s.e. of it is a meadow some 4 miles east of the town, known as Khān Yūrtī (Khān's Camping-ground). The Qarā-sū flows through this meadow before entering Kān-i-gil. When it comes to Khān Yūrtī it curves back so far that it encloses, with a very narrow outlet, enough ground for a camp. Having noticed these advantages, we camped there for a time during [Sidenote: Fol. 48b.] the siege of Samarkand.[392]