"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎٣‎٨‎١] (٨٦٢/٧٦٤)

RAILWAYS 593
the edge of the desert sand-belt and the Euphrates to Ur junction
(m. 123), where the old line to Nasiriya is now operated as a branch.
From Ur the main line keeps dead straight to Khidhr on the Euphrates
(m. 160-7) an d then cuts across the bends of the river almost direct to
Samawa.
There are few engineering difficulties and no large obstacles to
cross. The country is open on both sides throughout, that on the south
rising to featureless desert. During the War of 1914-1918 there were
many more stations and passing-loops, but nine of them were
abandoned during the inter-war period. There are no places of any
importance on this section, but Suq ash Shuyukh, which is off the
railway, can be reached by unmetalled road from Tel al Lahm, and
Nasiriya is on a branch-line. From Zubair there is a main motor-road
to Kuwait, and caravan routes lead southwards into the desert from
Zubair, Jaliba, Tel al Lahm, Ur, Bat-ha, and Samawa, some of them
being fit for motors in dry weather.
(ii) Samawa to Hindiy a Junction. Just before Samawa the line enters
the irrigated region of the upper delta. After crossing the two main
channels of the Euphrates it follows the general course of the Hilla
canal, or Shatt al Hilla. At Rumaitha (m. 196) it crosses a perennial
distributary of the Hilla canal and thence keeps a fairly straight course
north-west and north, never far from the right bank of the Hilla
canal, to Diwaniya (m. 234-3) an< ^ Hashimiya. There are numerous
small bridges and culverts over irrigation channels. Near mile 260
there is a short branch siding to the Daghghara barrage (2 miles).
The Hilla canal is crossed near Hashimiya (m. 271-2), after which the
line keeps east of the canal, sometimes as much as 4 miles distant from
it, but it closes on the canal at Hilla and at the Hindiya barrage.
(iii) Branch-line, Hindiya Junction to Karbala. This branch makes
use of the Hindiya barrage to cross the Euphrates, and has to cross
the four canals controlled by the barrage: the Hilla and Georgiya
(Jarjiya) canals leaving the left bank of the Euphrates, the Bani Hasan
and Husainiya leaving the right. The line then keeps parallel to the
Husainiya and about 3 miles distant from it, following the desert edge
and making a detour round Karbala to its terminus south-west of the
town.
(iv) Hindiya Junction to Baghdad West. At Musaiyib the line leaves
the Euphrates and runs north through the irrigated tracts commanded
in succession by the Iskandariya, Latifiya, Mahmudiya, and Yusufiya
canals, all of which have to be crossed. Near Haur Rajab (m. 341-1)
the line enters the riverain belt irrigated from the Tigris, and at Daura
A 5195 Qq