'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎327] (436/496)

called Bakr’awa,* standing on the plain, and from it obtained the fol
lowing bearings : Tappeh Kureh, 52° ; Halebjah, 143° ; Peak of the
Avroman range, 55°. This singular mound is entirely artificial, about
150 feet high, and in circumference, by pacing it, nearly 500 yards.
Its summit forms an irregular indented circle, which has been divided in
to two parts by a wall crossing it. A shaft, in all probability the remains
of a well,f is observed on its east face; and at the base of the tumulus a
copious spring issues ; and walls, separated from the mound by an ample
ditch, serve to shew that, whatever cause may be assigned for the origin
of the mound in later times, it was fortified for the defence of a town
that encompassed it. Pursued our journey at 6 5, and at 7TO crossed
the Abi-Zalm, which flows from the E. N. E., and, irrigating this portion
of the extensive plain of Shahri-Zur, continues its course to the S. W.,
until its meets with the Tajrud, about an hour S. W. of our present po
sition. The combined streams then unite with the Abi-Shirwan, in the
neighbourhood of Semiram. From the Zalm river Bakr’awa bore 128°.
Proceeded at 7*20 in a direction of 330°, until 8*36, when we crossed a
small branch of the Tajrud, and at 8*50 altered the course to 280 . At
9*20 halted for ten minutes on another artificial tappeh, erected on the
left bank of the Tajrud, which, like the Zalm, is a stream of no great
magnitude. It takesTts risej in the extreme north of the plain, about
five miles 1ST. W. of the town of Sulimaniyeh. From this tappeh, Bakr-
awa bears 130° ; Tappeh Kureh, 102°. At 9*30, went on in a general
direction of 290°, but our course now became very winding, to avoid the
cultivation and numerous canals, which are cut for irrigation, from the
Tajrud.
Halted for the day at Yassin-tappeh, another singular mound of
artificial construction, and evidently the work of a very remote period.
Unlike the other tappehs|| met with so frequently m this part of Kurdis-
* Gliolamber from this spot bears 43|°.
t Communicating with the spring below.
J At a place called Tertchmar.-Vide Rich’s Kurdistan and Nineveh, Vol. I.,
page 65.
„ __ . m Gudrun 322°. The Semiram
§ Bakr’awa hears from Yassm Tappeh 122 , mid ^ ig ia latitude
precipices extend an angle between 15^2 to^
35° 21' 28 // N., and east of Baghdad 1 13 31 .
|| Tappeh is a Turkish phrase, "fls identic^witlf the
tumuli. Yassin Tappeh is considered by Maj t , ^nital of Shahri-Zur. Rich,
Resen of Genesis, and in later times to have been the capital ot „nanii