“…Moving on, you get used to these romantic monuments and buildings that flew up like eagles on waterless peaks. But the first impression is always the most striking.

One must have both a sense of beauty and courageous selflessness to settle at such heights. In many such waterless dwellings in the rocks, underground passages were pierced to the river, so that a loaded donkey could pass through them. This fairy tale of underground passages, as we shall see, gave rise to many excellent legends.”

(N.K. Roerich. The Heart of Asia.)