ARMENIA. 



AUMENIA. 



616 



A low spur of the Darkuah-Dsgh, which runs southward, and is 

 covered with dwarf oak* of several varieties, separates the valley of 

 the Kolb-Su fr..m that of iU feeder the Yak-Su. In this valley the 

 orient*! plane and the castor-oil ihrub (Agmu caittu) grow along the 

 stream, and the cotton plant is cultivated in the Mm The two 

 riven juit mentioned unite Mveral miles south of Nerjki, and are 

 joined still farther south 1>y the Sarum-Su, also flowing from the 

 Darkuth-Dagh, and in a wide bed, which in summer is divided into 

 Mveral cliamn-la ; the united stream fulls into the Tigris (still called 

 in the plain, Hiddekel), 15 or 20 miles above the mouth of Ilitlu 

 River. The Saruui-Su is famous for its water-melons. The soil in 

 this region is a whitish clay, very arid, but water for irrigation is 

 abundant ; the houses are constructed of clay-slate. In summer the 

 weather is sultry, and occasionally strong gusts of wind raise dense 

 clouds of dust. 



Westward from the Sarum-Su are the three districts of Hazero, 

 Ilijeh, and Rhini, which were formerly ruled by independent Beys, but 

 were subjected some years ago by the Porte. The district of Hazero 

 is in the plain of the Tigris, and contains about 60 villages. The 

 mulberry and Lombardy poplar flourish in the district Ilijeh and 

 KUini are in the hill and valley country that intervenes between the 

 plain and the Mush-Dagn. The hills are all composed of limestone, 

 and pros ?nt the usual cliffs, ravines, glens, and clear rills of that forma- 

 tion. The valleys and plains are very productive in fruit, garden- 

 stuff, and corn ; but in some valleys the soil being stony, grain crops 

 are light A great part of the country, however, is uncultivated and 

 desert In these two districts there are about 130 villages, inhabited 

 by Kurds and Armenians. The town of Ilijeh stands on a feeder of 

 the Tigris at an elevation of 8779 feet above sea level, and commands 

 a fine view of the plain of the Tigris. It contains two mosques, four 

 fountains, and some ill-supplied bazaars. The population amounts to 

 about 1000 families; one-fourth of these are Armenians, who are 

 mostly engaged in the manufacture of coarse Gotten cloths. The 

 town takes its name of Ilijeh (which means 'warm spring') from a 

 fountain springing out of the limestone rook. This fountain has a 

 temperature of 57 Fahr., which should be the mean temperature of 

 the climate. The townspeople say that it* water is cool in summer 

 and warm in winter, a remark which would imply that the temperature 

 of the spring is invariable. The town of Khini is situated about 

 20 miles west from Ilijeh, on the eastern side of a high plain 2924 feet 

 above the sea level, and contains 300 Mohammedan and 150 Armenian 

 families. Here also the Armenians are not farmers, but some of them 

 have gardens and vineyards, the produce of which they send for sale 

 to Diyar-Bekr, distant about 40 miles to the south-west ; they are all 

 engaged in manufacturing coarse cotton cloths, and have in all 

 about 120 looms. The raw cotton worked up in these districts 

 is brought from Kharput and Krz-rum, and is the produce 

 of Asia Minor or Persia. At Khini is the Aubar-Su, a feeder of the 

 Tigris ; it has ite source in a most abundant spring of excellent water 

 which issues from the limestone rock and has the same temperature 

 as the spring at Ilijeh. In the mountains northward from Khini on 

 the road to Palu, are the iron-mines of Sivan-Madeu. 



The plain of Khini is terminated on the western side by a range of 

 mountains which separates it from a well-cultivated plain, watered by 

 the Zibeneh-Su, a feeder of the Tigris, which rifles to the northward in 

 the main range, at the northern base of which the Murad flows. This 

 river has a clear rapid stream, which in summer is confined in parts 

 to a deep narrow bed 60 feet acroa, in other parts it runs in a wide 

 sandy bed in several channel*. The plain, which is extensive, grows 

 large quantities of wheat, barley, and maize. Between this plain 

 and the Tigris lies the district of Egil, which contains about 60 

 villages. Aleppo manufacture* are sold in this district by Jews, who 

 receive in payment gall-nut* gathered in the mountain* to the north- 

 ward, where also large quantities of charcoal are made for the 

 Arghana mines. The hills to the north of the district are covered 

 with a loose whitish clay, without vegetation, ami there is little or BO 

 cultivation except in the neighbourhood of the streams. The Arghana 

 mine* on the opposite or right bank of the Tigris are at an elevation 

 of 8644 feet above the see, The steep rough mountains are, a little 

 to the west of the mine, crossed by a military road which runs 

 northward past Kharput and through Aaia Minor to Samsun on the 

 south coast of the Black Sea. 



The Tigris, which forms the drain of all the country just noticed 

 to the south of the Mush-Uagh, rises few miles east of the cataracts 

 of the Euphrates, and a very short distance south of the Ooljik Lake, 

 between a ridge of hills that bounds the lake on the south and the 

 main range of the eastern continuation of the Taurus Mountains, near 

 the point 58' 20' N. lat, 89 25' E. long. It runs at fin* for above 

 SO miles parallel to the range in an easterly direction, and then 

 southward by a break in the chain through a mountainous country, 

 till it enters the plain of DiyarBekr Bear the town of Arghana. 

 From Oiyar Bekr the river again runs eastward, receiving the riven 

 that flow from the Musb-Dagh on it* left bank, and those from the 

 Kanjih Dagh and J*b*l Mardin on the right On receiving the Bitlis 

 River the Tigrii. finally take* a southerly course. [TloEiH.] The 

 water of UM Tigris is bad, and throughout the whole course of the 

 mer tad of it. tributary streams the inhabitant, are subject to the 

 disease called Bouton d'Aleppe or Yen* M-^ n-riT In ita eastward 



:ourse below Diyar-Bekr the Tigris traverses a rich plain of Mature 

 land on which a few village* are seen here and tin p . formerly this 

 plain which is above 40 miles in extent was cultivated in every part 

 Hid studded with village*, some of which had more than one 

 Christian church. In the plain of the Tigris a vast uum 

 mounds are seen, some bare, some with fort* on their summits and 

 villages at their bases. 



Dittricti along the Southern \\~attnhtdof tl. it, I'n-iu 



the great bend of the Euphrates above Qergen Kaleai a rocky range 

 forming port of the system of the Taurus Mountains runs south- 

 east, with conical summits of trap rocks IH .listricts of 

 Suvcrek and Diyar-Bekr, and separates the basin of the Upper Tigris 

 from that of the Euphrates. The watershed is continued eastward 

 liy the Jebel Mardin hill*, the ancient Masius, a lofty range <v>niHng 

 of white limestone in horizontal strata, on a bold cliff of which the 

 town of Mardin is built A depression between the trap and lime- 

 stone is traversed by the caravan road between Mardin and Uriah. 

 Between the ruins of Dara and NUibin, Mont Masius runs nearly due 

 east, but at a greatly diminished height; near the sources of the 

 Jakhjakhah (the ancient Mygdonius), a feeder of the Khabur, the 

 range again rises up to mountainous dimensions. A little farther 

 to the eastward the conical summits and trap rocks of the Baarem hills 

 succeed, and a low range runs down to the Tigris near Jezireh ibu- 

 Omar ; a little north of which on the left bank of the river rise the bold 

 precipices of Jebel Judi, one of the highest of the Kurdistan Mountains, 

 on which Mohammedan writers, supported by a long course of 

 traditionary history, assert that the ark of Noah rested. To the 

 south of the watershed lies an extensive plain, bounded on the west 

 by a bare limestone ridge that runs in a northerly direction from 

 the neighbourhood of Urfah ; it stretches eastward to the plains of 

 Siujar, which lie between Jebel Mardin on the north and the mountains 

 of Sinjar, the home of the Yezedees, on the south, and are traversed 

 by the Huali or Sinjar River, a feeder of the Khabur. This plain for 

 ten or twelve miles from the Karajah-Dagh presents long level sweeps 

 bare of trees; the surface in part* is covered with a dork brown 

 soil of great fertility yielding when cultivated excellent crops of 

 corn ; other parts of it are covered for miles with nothing but 

 large loose stones of porous basalt or basanite. This district is 

 traversed by many rivulet* which flow generally in rocky beds ; and 

 Kurdish villages with their accompanying Tels, or mounds, are to be 

 seen in every direction. Near the Jebel Mardin a hard clay containing 

 piece* of white limestone, and yielding only prickly and bitter herbs, 

 rises to the surface. To the south-west of the region of the igneous 

 rocks is on undulating country of horizontal limestone of the chalk 

 formation, intersected by valleys and glens with little or no cultivation. 

 To the westward the chalk hills contain vast quantities of flint, and 

 ore again succeeded near Urfah by basanite and other igneous rocks. 

 Large herds of bullocks and horned cattle, and numerous flocks of 

 goats and sheep, and fine horses ore fed in this plain. The heat here 

 is very great in summer, and the greater part of the plain is then 

 scorched and bare ; in winter a good deal of snow falls, and the rich 

 soil above alluded to is then converted into mud. Near the Jebel 

 Mardin the rain-water lie* in natural hollows, sometimes forming 

 small lakes, but there are scarcely any running streams in the upper 

 port of the plain in summer. The Sinjar Mountains are an immense 

 mam of limestone above miles in length, and rising about the 

 centre to their greatest elevation above the plain, which is about 

 2000 feet They slope down rapidly to the Khabur which runs along 

 their southern base; towards the plum ,,(' Sinjar and the Huali the 

 slope seem* to be more gradual. In various parts of these plain* 

 are mounds called Tels, apparently of artificial formation, and on 

 or near them the villages are built The houses on account of the 

 scarcity of timber are in some part* of the plain of bee-hive shape 

 with spherical roofs ; in summer they are need chiefly as barns or to 

 shelter cattle, the inhabitants living almost universally under tents. 

 Kurdish tribes dwell in the Karajah-Dagh and Jebel Mardin ; on the 

 northern slopes of both the villages are inhabited by Kurds, the 

 plains to the southward by Arabs and Yezedees. In the large town* 

 of Urfah, Mardin, Diyar-Bekr, Ac., a considerable portion of the 

 population are Armenians. 



The highest part of the Jebel Mardin rises about 1000 feet above 

 the plain, and about 2300 feet above the sea level A few email 

 stream* run down ite northern slopes to the Tigris watering valleys 

 at great beauty and fertility, which are inhabited by Kurds. The 

 spars of limestone which separate the valleys are rugged and sparingly 

 covered with brushwood. On the northern slope* of the Kora-Dagh 

 the black basalt shows itself again and it appears at intervals along 

 the Tigris, from Mosul to Diyar-Bekr. The latter town stands on a 

 maes of black basalt, and i surrounded by a beautiful country 

 covered with a dark brown soil of great fertility. 



Eauttn Me of Ike Piaint ; GOWK of the Hill aThe eastern side of 

 the basin of the Upper Tigris belonging to Armenia extended north- 

 ward from the Buhtan Mountains, a rugged range, supposed to be the 

 mountains of the Carduchian* described by Xenophon as approaching 

 clow to the left bank of the Tigris ; they rise about 3000 feet above 

 the plain. The Kentrites, now the Buhtan, an eastern affluent of the 

 Tigris, formed the boundary between the Carduchians and Armenia. 

 From these range* numerous valley* open out into the plain, which 



