"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [ظ‎‎٣‎٦‎٠] (٨٦٢/٧٢٣)

562
COMMUNICATIONS
ROADS
There was an almost complete lack of cart-roads or permanent
bridges in Iraq before 1900, and even in 1914 wheeled traffic south
of Baghdad was almost confined to the roads from that city to Karbala,
Najaf, and Hilla. There was hardly a motor-car in the country and
the tracks were used almost exclusively by travellers with pack trans
port. During the war many roads were made passable for cars in dry
weather, but except in the Basra area little could be done in the way
of soling, metalling, or surfacing.
Roads and tracks have been greatly improved since 1918, and to-day
there are more than 5,000 miles of fair-weather motor-roads. But
probably not more than one-tenth of this mileage is metalled or
surfaced. At least 4,000 miles are earth-surfaced roads, levelled by a
road grader, embanked and bridged where necessary, but liable to be
churned and rutted after rain. The dearth of first-class roads is
caused by the absence of stone in the south, and the expense of
bringing suitable road-metal or concrete to the site; but this handicap
is to some extent off-set by the flatness of the country, the low rainfall
for most of the year, and the cheapness of construction and repair of
earthen roads.
No precise classification of roads is possible under these circum
stances, since so much depends on the season and the amount of
repairs and improvements carried out year by year; but it is possible
to give a broad outline of road-passability in the different regions in
summer and winter.
Lower Mesopotamia. The fine, stoneless, alluvial silt of the delta
becomes a morass after rain; large areas are liable to inundation when
the rivers are high, and there are numerous irrigation channels to
cross. The earthen roads in this region, sometimes carried along the
tops of embankments, are therefore only suitable for heavy motors
in winter if they have been very carefully consolidated by watering at
the time of construction, and when they have been baked hard by the
sun, and even then they will not endure continuous traffic.
Upper Mesopotamia. Conditions here are better because there is
more gravel and conglomerate in the soil. The Jazira as a rule gives a
good surface to cars where gypsum outcrops and shaiban (p. 78) are
absent. Between Mosul and the Wadi Tharthar there are an in
creasing number of watercourses and low hills which tend to keep
traffic to defined lines. In any part of this country, as in the south, salt-
impregnated country (sabkha) retains moisture long after the sur