1847.] Journal of a Steam Trip to the north of Baghdad, 309 



the distances along it of 700 and 790 paces, and at its termination, 

 had other walls connected with and extending from it, at right angles, 

 or due east, for 450 paces, where they break off abruptly, for I could 

 trace them no further. A perfect oblong enclosure of 250 paces long 

 from north to south and 100 broad, occupied the space between the 

 northern parallels. A high mud rampart appears to have surrounded 

 the town, leaving a space between it and the outer defences of 70 feet 

 wide. The great canal of the Nahrwan is seen stretching far to the 

 eastward and passing within 200 yards of the north-east angles of the 

 fort. A canal or cut from the Nahrwan, about one mile north-west 

 of the city, watered the country between it and the Tigris and ran 

 along the west face of the fortification, throwing out a branch in a 

 S. S. E. direction at a short distance below its junction with the 

 Nahrwan. This offshoot entered the fort at its N. W. angle and ran 

 in a S. S. E. direction to the angle of the city wall, where it bifurcated, 

 one branch passing along the north face of the city, while the other, 

 running parallel with the western wall for 640 paces, suddenly turned 

 to the east through an opening in it. After supplying the town, I 

 presume, both this and the northern branch must have been employed 

 in irrigation. It is probable indeed, that the whole space between the 

 walls of the city and the outer defences contained gardens, for no 

 mounds of any size or extent are to be met with which could lead us 

 to conclude that buildings of any importance existed there. 



From the S. W. angle of Qadesiyeh* observed the following bear- 

 ings. Malwujeh Tower 328°, KhanMazrakji 97°, Ghaim Tower 307°, 

 Istabolat ruins and mouth of the Dijeil canal 267°. There can be no 

 doubt, I imagine, that this city was one of importance during the flour- 

 ishing period of the Nahrwan, and probably owes its decline and subse- 

 quent abandonment to that vast canal being allowed to fall into decay. 

 A small oblong enclosure, termed El Sanam, existed too on the summit 



* Qadesiyeh is 26' 27" west of Baghdad. Mr. Rich, in his Kurdistan and Nineveh, 

 quoting from Gibbon, imagines this to be the Assyrian city ot'Cardesia, but Col. Taylor, 

 a profound Arabic scholar, deems it the site of an early Arab town. Mr. Fraser in 

 alluding to it in his Mesopotamia and Assyria, wrongly terms it a Septagon instead of 

 an Octagon, and has unaccountably placed it on the west side of the Tigris, whereas it is 

 on the east bank. I presume him to have confounded Islabolat, which is on the west 

 bank, with Qadesiyeh, though his description in other respects certainly appertains to 

 the latter, See his work, p. 159. 



2 T 



