"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [ظ‎‎١‎١‎٣] (٨٦٢/٢٣١)

COASTS OF THE PERSIAN GULF
150
The south shore of Kuwait harbour continues west for about 17
miles, with two bights fringed by reefs and shoals, to the head, which
is swampy. Jahara is a small village with good wells, on the motor-
road from Kuwait to Basra; dates, cereals, and vegetables are grown
and sent to the capital by motor in increasing quantities. /Kadhama,
a hamlet north-east of the head of the bay, was where the Germans
hoped to station the terminus of the Baghdad Railway. The only
landing-place at the head of the bay is at Khuwaisat, between Jahara
and Kadhama.
The coastal plain of the north-west part of Kuwait harbour is about
miles wide, with wells at intervals and patches of scrub and grass.
Inland, along the desert edge, is a cliffed sandstone ridge 25 miles long,
which rises to 490 feet south-west of the head of the bay, with a gap
north-west of Jahara through which passes the Kuwait-Basra motor-
road. From a point 24 miles north-east of the head of the bay the
coast trends east-south-east for 12 miles, the first 6 miles being a
morass, to the end of the wide tongue of land between the east-north-
east shore of Kuwait harbour and the south-west shore of Khor as
Sabiya. A coastal track connects Jahara with Qasr as Sabiya, a ruined
mud fort with date-palms and tamarisks which guards the entrance
to the Khor.
Khor as Sabiya is a narrow channel between the Kuwait mainland
and Bubiyan island, and extends almost to the Iraq frontier; it winds
north-north-west for 30 miles and is only accessible to small craft at
half flood, as there are numerous rocks and dry patches on the mud
flats in the entrance. The mainland shore is swampy; a track runs
north-north-west from Qasr as Sabiya to Umm Qasr in Iraq, along
the edge of the desert between 1 and 2 miles inland, passing several
wells; there are two short cuts across the desert to join the track from
Jahara to Qasr as Sabiya. Bubiyan island is 27 miles long and 15
miles wide; it is flat and barren, with swampy shores. Warba island,
north-west of Bubiyan island, is separated from the mainland of Iraq
by Khor Shetana; it is low and covered with reeds and coarse grass.
The Iraq boundary passes outside Bubiyan and Warba islands and
crosses the coast of the mainland about 3 miles north-west of the
junction of Khor as Sabiya and Khor Shetana, in the entrance to
Khor Zubair.
Coast of Iraq from Khor Zuhair to the Shaft al Arab
The coast of Iraq is about 36 miles long and is composed of an
extensive mud-flat, partly covered at high water during south-east