'Reconnaissances in Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, North-West Persia, and Luristan from April to October 1888. By Lt F R Maunsell, Intelligence Branch. In Two Volumes. Volume I: narrative report, description of larger towns and routes leading from them. Simla: Intelligence Branch, Quarter Master General's Dept, 1890' [‎78r] (160/312)

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We followed a narrow path along the left bank of the river through a thicket of low shrubs
and wild vines which climbed over the rocks, and after two hours’ difficult marching halted
to rest the animals on a small plateau half way up the hillside.
We started again and skirted the river bank again and then left the valley ; turned up another
smaller one to the south-west, down which a stream flowed. This is the Thai valley. Vegetation
is very abundant,—walnut, oak, and other trees and shrubs line the stream banks.
* We passed some Kurdish villages on the hillslopes who refused supplies. The slopes are cul
tivated in terraces one above the other, banked up by low stone walls. Rice, maize, millet and
hemp were the principal crops. We passed through Becherat, a small village prettily situated on the
right bank of the stream. It contains 30 houses echelloned one above the other ; the roof of one
forming a terrace in front of the house next above it. Some enormous rocks detached at some
period from the cliff overhang the village. In one of these a small church has been cut.
The stream entirely disappears in the stony bed of the ravine and reappears again 100 yards
further on in the form of numerous springs. The water is collected and led in small channels to
irrigate the fields. The ravine as we ascend loses all traces of vegetation, and the soil is nothing
more than a mass of stones and rocks. The slopes of the hills are quite rocky and bare of trees
also.
At a sudden turning of the road we saw in the distance the small Kurdish village of Rabat
surrounded by some fine walnut and poplar trees. We halted here for the night.
2nd October. — Left Rabat at 7-0 A.M., and followed a difficult stony path winding up a steep
incline to the summit of the ridge above the village. A single hawthorn marks the summit, in
the shade of which we halted for a few minutes.
We skirted along the crest, keeping the valley down to the right, and shortly after commenced
the descent by a path steeper than the ascent, and down which we had to lead our horses.
Halted at the foot of the slope in the shade of an enormous rock near a small village now
abandoned. The stream in this valley is called the Anthrad.
From here new scenery began to open out: the valley was perfectly desolate, the soil being
composed of a stone resembling lava. The stream in the valley made a sudden bend, and we
ascended a spur to avoid it. Crossing this we entered another bare valley all stones and rocks.
Not a single shrub or blade of grass grew beside the stream, and the desolation was complete.
C’ext une vallee de Vevfer.
The clear waters of the stream tumbled over enormous rocks forming small cascades. At
intervals were small stone bridges crossing the stream. It would be difficult to say at what
period and by whom these were constructed. The track grew worse among the boulders. The
stream grows in size as we go down the valley, and several affluents join on either bank, little
by little the valley gets less desolate and a few blades of grass appear and then groves of poplar
and walnut trees.
The valley winds a good deal and becomes wider as we go on. It is now filled with terraces
growing fruit trees and meadow grass. Walnuts lay strewed under the trees, and vines loaded
with excellent grapes climbed to the summit of the poplars.
We passed the Kurdish village of Guzarek, situated not 50 yards from the Nestorian village of
Gunduk. The water from the stream is distributed with such care among the terraces and crops
that below the village the stream had entirely disappeared.
Some small water mills were seen where oil was being pressed from walnuts, and villagers
were now gathering them from the trees.
Marching for an hour through this fertile district, we came to another well wooded spot round
the Nestorian village of Churub, where we halted.
The Nestorians in these mountains may be distinguished from the Kurds by the former, both
men and women having their hair plaited into two long tails down the back, while the latter have
their heads shaved.
3rd October .—Left the village, and threaded our way along a narrow path through some
terraced orchards: the walls on either hand were so narrow that the mules frequently knocked
their loads against them.
After marching for an hour all vegetation disappeared, the torrent became dry, and no path
was traceable through the stones. We followed the dry bed of the stream among boulders
through a gorge with perpendicular sides of immense height looking quite inaccessible. Flowing
from our right we crossed a small stream, a tributary of the Anthrad.
On the slopes were two small villages, one Kurd and the other Nestorian, surrounded by
terraces of cultivation from the stream.
The name of the Kurdish village is Jessi and the Nestorian Berj.
For two hours we descended a winding path following the left side of the valley about half way
up the slope. A few dwarf oaks were dotted about the hillside for a short way, and then the
valley grew bare again.
The panorama in front of us is something like that seen from the summit of the last ridge
before entering the plain of Van. It is the same chaos of mountain peaks, but higher still, and
more jagged along their summits. We turn up over a spur leaving the valley of the Anthrad, and
from the summit the general aspect of the country seems to change. The soil looks more fertile,
and the grass and shrubs on the slope soften the universal greyish tint that covers the hills
which we have just left.