'Field notes: Mesopotamia. General Staff, India. February, 1917.' [‎19r] (44/350)

29
The Euphrates Valley (from Fallujah to Basrah-}.
The valley of the Euphrates offers somewhat different
characteristics to that of the Tigris. In the first place the
course of the river is by no means clearly defined, and in addi
tion to the old and new channels of the main stream, there
are many subsidiary watercourses and tracts of water which,
especially in the time of flood, complicate the question of move
ment and navigation in this region. On this account the river
is in present circumstances little used as a means of traffic.
On the other hand, it is possible by the Euphrates valley to
reach Basrah by road. There is a through route, avoiding
the main water difficulties, by Diwaniyah and Samawah to
Suq-ash-Shuyukh, and thence to Basrah, the marshy tract
which prevents this place being reached by the Tigris valley
being skirted by moving along the edge of the desert. Samawah
can also be reached in a more roundabout manner, via Karbala
and Najaf.
The general nature of the Babylonian plain, which occupies
the_ space between the two rivers, has already been alluded
to in the last chapter. West of the Euphrates the tableland
of the Syrian and Arabian deserts approaches to within 30 miles
of Najaf and thence continues south within a short distance of
the river. This desert tableland is of different formation accord
ing to locality, and where it merges into the Mesopotamian
lowlands it is by no means an altogether arid waste. Large
numbers of nomad tribes circulate over well-defined tracks,
and the soil of fine sandy gravel offers a good surface for
movement.
General nature of the country on the river banks. —From the
Hindiyah barrage to the end of the Shinafiyah Lalje there is
continuous cultivation on both banks, and the traveller is
never_ out of sight of many date groves. Where the banks
aie high, wheat and barley are grown, and lower down there
is an enormous area of rice cultivation, which is far more pro
fitable than winter crops which are ruined by floods every
second or third year. In the direction of Diwaniyah also
there were large areas under cultivation, but owing to the
drying up of the Hillah branch of the river, many have ceased
to exist. The completion (1914) of the new Hindiyah Barrage
(q.v. below) will, no doubt, remedy this. It is said that the
lands on the Euphrates round about Hillah used to pay a
B