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'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. III. 1917' [180] (189/432)
The record is made up of 1 volume (214 folios). It was created in 1917. It was written in English. 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.
180
LAND ROUTES
Water not plentiful till beyond Derban. Pasture good in spring.
Fuel probably lacking.
The details of the following route are taken from an authority
who went over it in April 1903.
Miles from
Qalah
Sher-
gliat
o
11
21
31
QaVah Slier ghat. Ascend r. bank of Tigris for about 2 m.
to a place where a ferry-boat is moored. (The ford about
5 m. above Sherghat reported by an authority of 1893 as
passable in the l.w. season is not included in a list of
Tigris fords compiled in 1910 from information of native
raftsmen. See Boute III E, m. 113^.)
Cross Tigris by Mezar esh-Sherghat ferry. In 1903 there
was one crazy boat steered and moved by one oar. From
the ferry proceed in a northerly direction to—
El-Haichel camping-ground. Here in April 1903 there
was a camp of Jebur semi-nomads, who had left their
village and migrated into tents for the summer.
From El-Haichl strike across plain in an ENE. direction.
f hr. from El-Haichl, cross bed of ancient canal 30 yds.
broad. This canal is said by local Arabs to run S. to the
Lesser Zab. It is called the
Wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
el-Hafr.
Through a line of low hills hr. from canal) dotted with
artificial mounds. Here is passed a small permanent
spring.
Enter a broad open plateau 800 ft. above sea-level,
dotted with villages. In the spring of 1903 these had
been abandoned owing to drought and locusts. Makhmur
lies under the saddle between the northern and southern
heights of the Qarachok Dagh which lies ahead across
the plain.
Pass artificial mounds (3 hrs. from hills). Between this
point and Makhmur water in small quantities is to be
found as a rule.
Makhmur (3 hrs. from the mounds). Outside the village
are the remains of an ancient town, each side measuring
about 420 yds., surrounded by a square of mound walls
as at Nineveh. In the centre is a large mound.
Makhmur itself is a new place, being the centre of
a large estate of the Da'irat which comprises
most of the country between the two Zabs in the
neighbourhood of the Qarachok Dagh. Makhmur is
About this item
- Content
This volume is A Handbook of Mesopotamia, Volume III, Central Mesopotamia with Sourthern Kurdistan and the Syrian Desert (Admiralty War Staff Intelligence Division, January, 1917), covering the Tigris and Euphrates from Baghdad and Fellūjeh [Fallujah] to Mosul and Meskeneh [Maskanah], the Lesser Zāb, the country east of the Tigris towards the Persian frontier, and the routes running westward from the Euphrates valley across the Syrian Desert. The volume was prepared on behalf of the Admiralty and War Office, and appears to be based on official and unofficial publications and maps which are cited in a bibliographical section in the volume. This volume was supplemented with corrections and additions in June 1918 (see IOR/L/MIL/17/15/41/5).
The volume includes a note on confidentiality, a title page, 'Note', 'Abbreviations'. There is a page of 'Contents' which includes the following sections:
- Introduction;
- River Routes (The Tigris and the Lesser Zāb, The Euphrates);
- Land Routes (The Tigris Valley with Region to East, The Euphrates Valley, Connexions between Tigris and Euphrates Valleys, The Syrian Desert);
- Gazetteer of Towns;
- Bibliographical Note;
- Transliteration of Names;
- Glossary;
- Appendix;
- Index;
- 'Sketch Map of Routes', which includes 'City Map of Baghdad' (f. 212) and 'Mesopotamia: Outline Map Showing Routes, Volume III' contained in a pocket.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (214 folios)
- Arrangement
This volume is arranged according to numbered routes. There is a page of contents and an alphabetical index. There are two maps housed in a pocket.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover and terminates at the inside back cover; 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'. side of each folio (except for the front cover, where the folio number is located on the verso The back of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'v'. ).
Pagination: The volume also has an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/MIL/17/15/41/4
- Title
- 'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. III. 1917'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, i-r:i-v, 1:422, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence