Hiking the Glenn Highway through Alaska. Published in Asphalt Pilgrims.
Paul Salopek
Every hundred miles Salopek pauses to record the landscape and a person he meets, assembling a global snapshot of humankind. Milestones reflect straight-line distances, but his walked distances are generally much longer. More on these waypoints here.
Every hundred miles Salopek pauses to record the landscape and a person he meets, assembling a global snapshot of humankind. Milestones reflect straight-line distances, but his walked distances are generally much longer. More on these waypoints here.
The hundred-mile waypoints on my global walking route usually tick over in mundane settings. At a boulder field in Ethiopia. Beside a gritty Palestinian gas station. Along an anonymous stretch of railroad in Uzbekistan. But for the first time in six years, a milestone has fallen precisely at a bona fide cultural landmark: the masterpiece tomb, built of cloud-grey stone, of the fabled Afghan emperor of northern India in the 16th century, Sher Shah of Sur.
One of the great Muslim rulers of India, Sher Shah organized India’s tax collection system. He formalized a postal service. He was a genius at siege tactics and road building. He also was generally tolerant of other faiths—though he did go back on his promise to spare the kin of the vanquished Rajput king Puran Mal, castrating the king’s nephews and forcing Mal’s daughter to join a minstrel band as a dancing girl. Such are the fickle wages of empire.
“He is mainly remembered for his tomb,” said Rajesh Ram, a guard at the colossal mausoleum in Sasaram, in Bihar state. “He was a good man, the emperor. He was a father to his people. He was a progressive. But his tomb is how he’s remembered.”
It was raining when I walked through. For all its mass, the tomb was beautifully lean. It held the austerity of the Afghans. It was sparsely visited and smelled of bats and pigeons.
A wraparound soundscape at this Milestone
This Milestone’s location on a map
Photos of the ground under Paul’s feet and the sky above at this Milestone
A brief question and answer with the first person Paul meets at this Milestone
Rajesh Ram
Mausoleum guard, 41
Who are you?
I’ve been working here five years. I love the beauty of this place. People of all kinds come here. Muslims. Hindus. It’s for everyone. I have no anxieties here. I never imagined I’d get a job in such a place. In some past life I maybe had some obligations here. So I’ve come back to serve.
Where do you come from?
I live in a village 15 kilometers away. It had its king, too.
Where are you going?
I don’t know. If a get a transfer I’ll move. I don’t know where.
A video showing the landscape around this Milestone
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