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'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [251] (260/568)
The record is made up of 1 volume (282 folios). It was created in 1918. It was written in English, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Armenian, Kurdish and Syriac. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
(in)
COMMUNICATIONS AND TKANSPORT 251
(483 miles). The Euphrates is crossed by a boat-bridge at Fellujeh.
The road is practicable for motor-traffic. Railway: Fellujeh—
Baghdad (4 ft. 8^in.); and line under construction from Fellujeh up
Euphrates valley.
(") River-route.
Meskeneh (57 miles by road from Aleppo)—Fellujeh, 570 miles.
Jerablus (74 miles by rail from Aleppo)—Fellujeh, 650 miles.
Birijik (about 80 miles byroad from Aleppo)—Fellujeh, 590 miles.
Apart from a few occasions on which shallow-draught steamers or
motor-launches have made the journey between Meskeneh and
Fellujeh, this route has been used by which navigate
downstream only, and are towed back empty. See further p. 286
and p. 292.
(b) Damascus—Baghdad via Tadmor and Deir ez-Zor (about
610 miles).
From Damascus to Deir ez-Zor (about 290 miles) there is a fairly
easy and well-watered route across desert or steppe. From Deir
ez-Zor the Aleppo—Baghdad road is followed.
[Until 1912 a camel-post used to follow a direct route across the
desert between Damascus and Hit; but this route, owing to scarcity
of water, is suitable only for riding-camels. Damascus—Baghdad
Hit, about 490 miles.]
II. Routes from Aleppo to via
In the past the usual caravan-route from Aleppo to Mosul avoided
the steppes of the Jezlreh, principally because of their insecurity;
between the Euphrates and Mardln it made a detour to north by
Diarbekr, and again between Nisibin and Mosul it passed east of the
Tigris by Jezlret-ibn-'Omar and Zakho. Similarly the main land-
route from Mosul to Baghdad skirted the edge of the Kurdish hills
by Erbil, Altun Koprii, Kirkuk, and Kufri, and avoided the shorter
way by the Tigris valley, which from a few miles below Mosul down
to Tekrit was empty of settled inhabitants and was dominated by
the Sham mar.
In recent times the shorter ways between Aleppo and Mosul and
between Mosul and Baghdad have been coming into use, and the trace
of the Baghdad Railway does not follow the detours above mentioned.
(a) Line of the Baghdad Railway (Aleppo—Baghdad, about 640-
650 miles by rail and road).
(i) Aleppo— Nisibin. By rail, about 277 miles; Jerablus
(Euphrates bridge ; 74 miles) and Ras el-'Ain (203 miles).
About this item
- Content
This volume is A Handbook of Mesopotamia, Volume I, General (Naval Staff, Intelligence Department: November 1918). This is an updated and expanded edition of A Handbook of Mesopotamia, Volume I, General (Admiralty War Staff, Intelligence Department: August 1916) (IOR/L/MIL17/15/41/1). This is an introductory volume containing matter of a general nature giving an account of conditions in Mesopotamia, for the most part as they were before the First World War.
The volume includes a note on official use, a title page and 'Note'. There is a page of 'Contents' that includes the following chapters and sections:
- Chapter 1: Boundaries and Physical Features;
- Chapter 2: Climate;
- Chapter 3: Minerals;
- Chapter 4: Fauna and Flora;
- Chapter 5: Hygiene;
- Chapter 6: History;
- Chapter 7: Inhabitants;
- Chapter 8: Religions;
- Chapter 9: Administration;
- Chapter 10: Irrigation of Irak [Iraq];
- Chapter 11: Agriculture and Land Tenure;
- Chapter 12: Commerce and Industry;
- Chapter 13: Currency, Weights, and Measures;
- Chapter 14: Communications and Transport;
- Vocabularies;
- Index.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (282 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged in numbered chapters. There is a contents page and an alphabetically arranged index.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the first folio and terminates at the last folio; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of the folio.
Pagination: The volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Armenian, Kurdish and Syriac in Latin and Arabic script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/MIL/17/15/41/2
- Title
- 'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, i-r:i-v, 1:556, ii-r:ii-v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence