434 
RUINS OF KIZZILABAD, 
the people, Arab and Courd, is much the same ; hardly differ¬ 
ing in the least from the dress of their brethren between 
Pool-zohaub and Bagdad. The villages are large; the houses 
in proportion, with long and lofty rooms, spread on each side 
with narrow carpets manufactured by the natives, as are also 
the soft cushions which add to their comfort. We had here 
no occasion to make use of our nummuds, all my people being 
furnished with excellent bedding and coverlids. The court¬ 
yards of the houses were very spacious, and possessing an air of 
cleanliness, alas ! not very common in these eastern climates. 
Dec. 7th. — Left Kifri this morning at seven o’clock; taking 
a path rather more to the southward than the direct road 
to Tooz-koormati, our halting-place. We rode on S. 70° W. 
keeping the sulphurous mountains about two miles distant on 
our right; they ran west and east: at fourteen miles distance 
on our left, the Hamrean hills stretched from north to south as 
far as the eye could follow them. After passing over a few 
gravelly, undulating tracts on the plain, it opened at once upon 
us with every cultivated and busy appearance; the property of 
the ever-active Kayatt people. In about two hours we crossed 
a very wide ravine, the natives call the dry river, and soon after 
reached the ruins of Kizzilabad, or Kharaba. It was to see 
them I made this little circuit. The place, of which they form 
a remnant, appears to have been of considerable consequence; 
though the only marked objects now left are the foundations of 
the various towers and curtain-walls that formed its fortress. 
Near one of them, a fine double-arched gate, of Saracenic 
character, might imply a date to the rest. The whole of the 
visible ruins are of stone and brick ; and for nearly two miles 
from the standing remains, we found mounds and fragments of 
