| Court art of Sogdian Samarqand in the 7th century AD | |||||||||||||
| Home | General | Western Wall | Northern Wall | Eastern Wall | Southern Wall | Bibliography | |||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Southern wall
The white elephant leads the great procession depicted on the southern wall paintings. He is covered with a richly decorated blanket. On the neck of the animal hangs a golden bell:
Unfortunately, only one of the riders (fig. no. 5) remained at least partially. It is a woman sitting rearmost. The other parts of the elephant's back are destroyed.
Above: The drawing from Al'baum's book suggests an angular line along the back of the elephant. Al'baum saw this line as connected with a blue, rectangular piece terminating with the female rider. In conclusion the author suggested that these are the remains of a canopy. Under this (we ask: cracked??) canopy he supposed the image of a princess brought to Samarqand by the ambassador of Chaghaniyan. These speculations are very unlikely, except the fact that the ambassador is mentioned in the main inscription on the western wall.
The below close-up demonstrates what remained in fact:
Go to next page on the white elephant and its riders
or - go back to main text (southern wall)
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
