The location of this city upon the principal thoroughfare between
India, Persia, and Turkestan gives it a special importance in a
military sense. It is also the principal mart of Western
Afghanistan, and comprises extensive manufactures in wool and
leather. The natural fertility of the country near Herat has been
enhanced by irrigation.

"The valley, or _julgah_ (as the Persians say), in which the
city lies is rich in the possession of a river. This valley is about
thirty miles long by sixteen in breadth, exclusive of the ground
taken up by the fortress and the walls. Four of these miles separate
the town from the northern and twelve from the southern hills, while
at one quarter of the greater distance runs the Her-i-Rud or Herat
River, which, rising near the Kuh-i-Baba, pursues a westerly course
till, passing the city, it sweeps, first gradually, then decidedly,
to the north, eventually to lose its identity in the environs of
Sarakhs. It is of political as well as of geographical importance,
for it passes between the Persian and Afghan frontier posts of
Kahriz and Kusun respectively, and may be considered to mark the
Perso-Afghan boundary at the Western Paropismus. The Plain, south of
the walls, is watered by a net-work of eight or nine large and many
minor ditches. The aqueducts are stated to be superior to those of
Bokhara, Samarcand, and Ispahan. The grain produced is abundant--
beyond the requirements of town and suburbs together. The bread, the
water, and the vines have the merit of special excellence. Yet, with
all this wealth of means and material, capable of subsisting an army
of 150,000 men for some time, much of the legacy of past ages is
disregarded and nullified by the supineness of a present generation.
The ruins visible on all sides are not all useless or obsolete