| Court art of Sogdian Samarqand in the 7th century AD | |||||||||||||
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Southern wall
The southern wall's left end marks the point of destination for the great procession depicted on this wall. Below is a close-up of this point, a piece of architecture painted in yellow.
In the right part of the image one can see the head of a white elephant, the leading animal of the great procession. Note that the head of the elephant is set against a rich blue background. This blue background has been used allover the southern wall. Now look towards the left end of the above image: Behind the yellow architectural unit there is no blue background at all but a clear white area.
And that is what we need to conclude from our above mentioned observations. The procession ends in front of a magnificent golden gate, leading into a city or a building. The walls of the latter are indicated in white towards the left corner of the paintings. The visitor is invited to compare this with the new French reconstruction at afrasiab.org, which seems at this point simply wrong.
NB: Our sketch is only a simplificated one, based on Al'baum's drawings. The architectural details (hight of the structures, battlements) are not meant to be taken as definitive.
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