A city of the Chosroes transported by Jinns into our own time.
Built around and upon a low mount, it stood within a valley but little larger than the Pit.

The plain was level, as though once it had been the floor of some primeval lake; the hill of the City was its only elevation.
Beyond, I caught the glinting of a narrow stream, meandering.

The valley was ringed with precipitous cliffs falling sheer to its floor.
Slowly we advanced.
The city was almost square, guarded by double walls of hewn stone.

The first raised itself a hundred feet on high, turreted and parapeted and pierced with gates.

Perhaps a quarter of a mile behind it the second fortification thrust up.
The city itself I estimated covered about ten square miles.