81* 



BAGHDAD. 



BAOHDAD. 



to his brother exile*. Judging from the numWr of mound* the 

 valley must have oonUined a very large population in ancient time*. 

 Now there in not a permanent human habitation from CarchemUh to 

 Kan-al-Ain. Turtle and beavers are found in the Khabur, and in the 

 jangle on ito banks are lionn, wild boars, jerboa*, francolins, and 

 other game. Between the extinct volcano of Koukab and the Sinjar 

 Mountain! are extensive beds of gypsum, the nitrous gait that exudes 

 from which destroy* vegetation. The lake of Kkatuniyah is also in 

 thin direction ; ito waters are brackish but wholesome ; they ab..un.l 

 in Bah and are the resort of great numbers of water-fowl. A swainpy 

 jungle called Hoi, to the westward of the lake, is infested by lions, 

 leopards, and other carnivorous beasts. The lake is 6 miles round ; it 

 contains a small island, and on a peninsula in it are the remains of a 

 deserted Arab town. The Abd-ul-Azeez hills, which screen the Khabur 

 on the west at a distance of from 4 to 6 miles, are low, scantily wooded 

 with dwarf oak, and broken into innumerable glens and valleys, 

 characteristic of its limestone formation. Wild goat*, boan, and 

 leopards are met with in this range. The Sinjar hills are described 

 in the notice of the Pashalic of MOSUL. 



South of the Sinjar extend the great plains of Mesopotamia and 

 Chaldtea, presenting for a great part of the year the appearance of a 

 desert, except near the banks of the rivers or in a few spots where 

 irrigation in practised. The surface is mostly flat or undulating. 

 Along the right bank of the Tigris and along the eastern part of the 

 plain there is a long limestone ridge called Jebel Mak-Kul, which 

 terminates to the north-west in the summit of El-Katr, to the west of 

 the ruins of Kalah-Sherkat, supposed by dome to represent Ur of 

 the Chaldeea. The Mak-Kul range consists of limestone and gypsum ; 

 it is a continuation of the Jebel Hamrin, another range composed of 

 tertiary sandstone, gypsum, and conglomerate, which runs north-west 

 from the Diyalah near 34 N. lat, 45 E. long., to about 35 N. Int., 

 43 30' E. long., where it is broken through by the Tigris. The 

 Adhem also breaks through the central part of the Hamrin hills. To 

 the west of the Mak-Kul range is a lower ridge called Kebritiyah from 

 ito containing sulphur spring*. The gypsum crops out in several parts 

 of the plain between these ranges, and there are also several naphtha 

 springs and bitumen beds. West of the Kebritiyah is the basin of 

 the Tharthar which flows south by east through the centre of the 

 northern plain and loses itself in the salt-lake of El-Milh, which U 

 crowed by the parallel of 34 10' N. The valley of the Tharthar is 

 bounded by rocky terraces of gypsum resting in parts on red-sandstone. 

 Its water* are brackish. Reeds and a few tamarisks grow along its 

 banks. The Tharthar passes the ruins of Al-Hadr, an ancient city 

 situated about 60 miles south by west from Mosul. The red-sand- 

 stone formation west of Al-Hadr contains rock-salt There is another 

 salt-lake called Sabakhah near the left bank of the Tharthar, and 

 nearly on the same latitude as the mouth of the Lesser Zab. In the drier 

 parts of the plains grass is rare, lichens and wormwood with a few 

 flowering plants supply its place. In the prairie pastures oat-grass is 

 the most abundant of the grasses; it grows interspersed with 

 ranunculus, chrysanthemums, and many kindred flowers. Wild leeks 

 also abound in many places. In the winter and spring the pastures 

 on the plains are grazed by the flocks and herds of different Arab 

 tribes, the principal of which are the Shammar and Aneceh. In 

 ancient times these plains supported an immense population. Vast 

 mounds, marking the sites of ancient cities, towns, and villages, are 

 scattered in countless numbers over the surface nearly all the way from 

 the Khabur to the mouth of the Euphrates ; the embankments of canals 

 now neglected and dry cross the plains in several directions, especially 

 in the central and lower part of the plains. These canals supplied the 

 towns of the interior with water, were used also for purposes of 

 navigation, and distributed fertilising rills by innumerable smaller 

 channels among the date-groves, gardens, and corn-fields of ancient 

 Babylonia and Chaldna, once among the most productive regions of the 

 earth. The whole of the region now under notice is now little better 

 than a desert ; except along the riven there arc no fixed human habita- 

 tions whatever. Even along the Tigris, between Baghdad and Mosul, 

 on a river navigable for 000 miles, the only permanent settlement is 

 Tekrit, once large city and the birth-place of the great Baladin, now 

 a poor place consisting of a few houses built among ruined mosques, 

 baths, mansions, and tombs, and inhabited by a few Arabs who act as 

 raftsmen on the Tigris. The date-palm which once flourished all 

 through Babylonia and Assyria is said not to be found now farther 

 north than Tekrit, and only in a few places along the river banks or 

 in the islands. This deterioration of the country has been going on 

 ever since the destruction of Babylon, and the neglect of the canals 

 and embankments of the river; but under the Greeks, Komanx, 

 Persians, and the Arabian Kslifs, the great sources of the fertility of 

 the country were somewhat cared for, and property had some pro- 

 tection ; the routes by river and by land were tolerably safe, and 

 trade was encouraged. But it is since the country came under 

 the blighting sway of the Turks that its desolation has become 

 complete. The unjust and injurious system of the Porte, or her 

 governors, who impose exorbitant taxes on every mode of transit and 

 a * k8 monopolies of all articles of produce and merchandise effectually 

 (says I>r. bayard) check all native efforts to engage in trade or to 

 navigate the rivers. Two of the finest riven in Asia that once spread 

 fertility through districts unequalled for richness of soil and variety 



of produce, are from sheer neglect of the embankments in thrir 

 lower courses said to be breaking from their natural beds and forming 

 vast marshes, so that the Euphrates and the Tigris which were proved 

 in the expedition of Colonel Chesnty to be navigable by small steamers, 

 the former for 850 miles the latter for 600 miles, are in danger of 

 becoming unnavigable even for small vessels. The only steam-vessel 

 in the country is a small one kept by the Britiiih consulate at Baghdad 

 for the purpose of communicating with Busrah. As for the land 

 routes they are all exposed to the unchecked depredations of Arab 

 hordes, owing to the apathy or perhaps interested negligence of the 

 Turkish authorities. To avoid the Arabs the high road from Mosul 

 to Baghdad is carried far to eastward along the base of the Kunlish 

 hills ; requiring an interval of six weeks to traverse it, while the 

 direct road southward over the plain could be traversed in as many 

 days. Even this roundabout way is seldom safe. 



The principal marshes are the Hor formed by the Saklawiyeh Canal 

 to the west of Baghdad, the Hindiyah to the west of Babylon, the 

 Kumiyah a little lower down, also on the right bank of the Euphrates, 

 the extensive marshes inhabited by the Afaif Arabs near the mound 

 of Niffer, and the great marshes west of Kuniah in which the Euphrates 

 loses itself for nearly 200 miles. A little west of the point where the 

 Saklawiyeh Canal leaves the Euphrates and above the mounds of 

 Kamelah is the famous Median Wail, which runs between the two rivers 

 from south-south-west to north-north-east across the plain. Towards 

 its eastern termination it is broken by the Mml KnIlM anil Iiijril 

 canals which leave the Tigris near 44 E. long. With this exc- 

 ite wall remains entire ; it is now called Chain, sometimes Sidd 

 Ximrud. It runs in a straight line from the one river to the other ; 

 it is defended by bastions on its north-western face at intervals of 55 

 paces ; on the same side is a deep ditch 27 paces broad. The structure 

 is a solid mound 25 paces thick and 35 to 40 feet high, built in parts 

 of small pebbles, in others with bricks, joined together by a very 

 tenacious lime cement. 



The principal towns in the region just noticed, namely, BAGHDAD, 

 BASRAH (Basaora or Busrah), and HII.I.AH, are noticed in their proper 

 places in this work. For further information respecting the antiquities 

 and history of the country, the articles ASSYRIA, BABYLON, BABYLONIA, 

 NINEVEH, &c., may be consulted. 



The utmost rise of the Euphrates during the floods of spring is about 

 14 feet, that of the Tigris is greater, perhaps 20 feet, and thus such 

 inundations are sometimes produced as are mentioned in our account 

 of the city. The tide extends farther up the Euphrates than up the 

 Tigris ; it reaches in the former river to the distance of 60 miles from 

 Kuniah while in the Tigris it scarcely extends to more than 35 miles. 



The Tigris receives no tributaries worth mention from Meso- 

 potamia. From Kurnah to the ruins of Ctesiphon it receives no 

 rivers on its eastern bank, but between that point and Mosul a 

 considerable number enter it, all of which rise in Kurdistan. 

 The principal of these are the Zab Ala (Upper or Great Zab), the 

 Zab Asfal (Lower or Lesser Zab), and the Diyalah, which rivers are 

 more particularly described in the article TIGRIS. The Great Zab, 

 after traversing a great portion of Turkish Kurdistan, empties itself 

 with rapidity into the Tigris about 45 miles below Mosul Ito 

 breadth where it enters the Tigris does not exceed 60 feet, although 

 at the low-water horse-ford on the road to Mosul it is at least 200 feet 

 wide. The Little Zab is a narrow but deep river which rises in 

 Kurdistan also, and pursues a south-south-west course to the Tigris, 

 which it enters in lat 35 10'. It however discharges a large body of 

 water into the Tigris, which immediately after forms a rapid ; indeed 

 there are several rapids in the Tigris between Mosul and Baghdad, 

 1>ut they form no great impedimenta to navigation, as vessels drawing 

 from 3 to 4 feet of water could pass them with ease. The Adhem 

 joins the Tigris in 34 N. lat., ito breadth is 20 to 70 yards, according 

 to the season, but for four or five months of the year ito waters are 

 dammed up for the purpose of irrigation a long way above ito mouth. 

 The ancient city of Opis stood in the fork between the rivers, where 

 still are ruins and the remains of a splendid canal (called Naharwau), 

 with branches from it The Adhem comes from the neighbourhood 

 of Kerkhah, where it is called Kisneh-Su, and increased by several 

 streams from the east, it forces a pass through the Hamrin, midway 

 between the Diyalah and the Tigris. The Diyalah in frmc<l by the 

 union of several small streams in the mountains l>ehind Suloiinaniyah ; 

 and after it has received the Holuan and Arwand from the Kerman- 

 shah districts it becomes a considerable river, which discharges itself 

 into the Tigris about 5 miles above the Tak Kesra at Ctexiphoii. 

 ito breadth at ito mouth is about 60 yards. 



The Shatt-cl-Arub 1s navigable in mid-stream for vessels of 500 tons 

 burden ; but towards the banks there is such a labyrinth of channels, 

 shallows, and sandbanks as renders ito navigation sometimes difficult 

 and perplexing. This noble river receives from Persia the Kerkhah, 

 and communicates by the canal of Hafar with the Karun. 



The AerfcAoA (the ancient Ckoatpa) rises on the eastern side of the 

 Zagros, or main range of the mountains of Kurdistan, and is formod 

 by three streams which unite to the south of Bisutun and Kirmanshah, 

 on tin' northern bonier of LarixUn. The general course of tli trunk- 

 stream is south by west till it breaks through the Zagros chain, tin- 

 drainage of the western side of which is carried into it by the Kirrimi, 

 near Shari-Rudbar. Thence ito course is south-south-east as far ns 



