Antiquity of Irrigation 69 



Nahrawan and Dyiel, besides several smaller ones. 

 Along the banks of the former of these canals fed by 

 the Tigris are now found the ruins of numerous towns 

 and cities on both sides, which are silent witnesses of 

 the great importance it held, and the great antiquity 

 of the work. It started on the right bank of the river, 

 where it comes from the Hamrine Hills, and was led 

 away at a distance of six or seven miles from the 

 stream toward Samarra, where it joined a second 

 canal. Another feeder was received 10 miles farther 

 on its course to Bagdad, a few miles beyond which its 

 waters fell into the river Shirwan, and were again 

 taken out over a wier and led 011 through Kurzistan. 

 It absorbed all the streams from the Sour and Buck- 

 haree Mountains, and finally discharged into Kerkha 

 River, but only after having attained a length exceed- 

 ing 400 miles, with a width varying from 250 to 400 

 feet. This great canal, with its numerous branches on 

 either side, leading water to broad irrigated fields, 

 while it bore along its main waterway the commerce 

 of those far distant days, stands out as a piece of bold 

 engineering hardly equaled by anything of its kind in 

 modern times. 



The Phoenicians, in the time of their zenith, were 

 celebrated for their canals, used both for irrigation 

 and city purposes ; and at the time of the invasion of 

 Africa the Syracusan General Agathocles wrote that 

 "the African shore was covered with gardens and large 

 plantations everywhere abounding in canals, by means 

 of which they were plentifully watered ; " and 50 years 

 later, when the Romans invaded the Carthaginian do- 



