'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎14] (57/905)

14 CITY OF DIYA^R BEKR. [CHAP. II.
D* c , ou ^ e k to towards the heart of Kurdistan, when at a little more than
25 miles from the spring it makes a sweep so as to take the
direction of Arghani Ma'den, or nearly south. Within a few
miles of that place it receives the addition of a considerable
stream coming from the S.W., or in a direction almost
parallel to the main branch. A little below the mines in
that district the stream bends rather eastward of south, pass
ing at a short distance on the east side of the town of
Arghani, and receiving about the middle of this part of its
course a tributary coming from the Taurus. The course
below Arghani continues in the general direction of S.S.E.
to the environs of Diyar Bekr, 1 where it makes a semicircular
bend to the eastward. Within the space thus formed the
modern town just mentioned has been built, at a short dis
tance from the right bank of the river; from which it is
separated by rich gardens, containing white and black
mulberries, prunes, apricots, peaches, figs, and gooseberries,
together with large forest trees; also ashes, poplars, and
willows, interspersed with balm, madder, and other plants. 2
Di^r Bekr. T ^ e towi1 stands upon an elevated rocky range, stretching
from the citadel, at its north-western extremity, towards the
S.W., in the shape of a boat, and is about 200 yards from
the river at the nearest point. 3 The citadel is on a precipi
tous mass of volcanic 4 rock, to which the walls of the town
are joined. These are high, well-built, and strong, being
flanked by 72 towers, which, like the walls, and even the
houses, are constructed of lava, 5 mixed with the ruins of
ancient buildings. The walls inclose a space of which the
circumference is about five miles. 6 The houses are fiat-roofed
and two stories high, the lower one of stone, and the upper
of clay; and the buildings rise in stages, like a succession of
1 The Tents or Dwellings of Bekr, the Kara Amid of the Turks; also sup
posed to be the ancient Amida; by Pocock, the Dorbeta of Ptolemy ; and Mr.
Ainsworth considers it to be the Tigranocerta of the campaigns of Lucullus.
2 Voyage de Constantinople a Bassora par Sestini. Paris, 1'An VI., pp.
104 and 105.
3 Niebuhr, tom. II., pp. 324, 325
Once a crater, according to Sestini, p. 94.
Sestini, Voyage k Bassora, p. 93. 6 Niebuhr, Plan, tome XL, p. 326.