'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' [‎61v] (127/312)

KAWANDUZ.
The town is situated at the end of a spur between two deep narrow gorges
formed by the junction of the Nalkewan stream with the Rawanduz Chai
from the mountains to the east. The hillside on which the town is built slopes
from 2,260 feet at the gardens to 1,500 feet in the riverbed.
It is a town of 900 houses : the population is very crowded, and numbers
about 6,000. They are all Kurds, with the exception of about 200 Jews and
a dozen Christian families.
The houses are built on the steep limestone soil of the hillside : the founda
tions of the walls for about 5 feet is rough stone work; the upper portion
is sun-dried brick, with a roof of beams and wattles covered with 2 feet of
earth.
The inhabitants in summer sleep on the roofs in a small shelter of green
wattles. The streets are very narrow: the houses are built across them in
some places, while in others the road goes over the roof. To pass troops
through, some of the houses would have to be levelled. Sanitation is quite
unknown.
The weather in summer is said to be quite as hot as the Mosul plain, and
the situation of the place sunk between bare hills would seem to warrant it.
Wool, gallnuts, and acorns are the principal exports, and the town being on
the main route between Mosul and Persia, large caravans of mules are to
be found in the serais. A small bulbous root from which starch is made
was dug up on the hillsides and exported.
The gorge of the Rawanduz river is the larger, and is called Rhubar, and
the smaller the Kalund gorge. The stream through the latter is dry in
summer, and the Rawanduz river is then fordable near its junction with the
other stream. It is now a swollen rapid torrent, 50 to 80 yards wide, and
quite impassable.
In the Rhubar gorge the cliffs overhang, and the river is only from 10
to 15 yards wide, and very deep.
A wooden bridge of a single 18 feet span crosses it at the west side of the
town. It is made of tree trunks, with fascines placed crosswise, covered
with a foot of earth, and a paved zigzag road, 10' to 15' wide, cut in the cliff
leads up to the opposite bank from the bridge.
From the bridge several paths radiate across the undulating country to the
north-west. A loopholed gateway overlooks it from the town.
The smaller gorge is crossed by a similar wooden bridge of 20 feet span
close to its junction with the river. It flows in a rift barely 10 feet wide.
The smaller bridge is defended by a portion of the old wall and two loopholed
towers.
Both the bridges are strong enough to take pack mules easily, but
neither of them are safe for field guns.
Two miles to the south-east the town is overlooked by the end of the Beni
Hindawin range, a very steep ridge rising abruptly to about 8,000 feet, and
wooded near the summit! On the right bank of the Kalund gorge are a series
of bare rounded spurs from the range further back. These also command the
town. A broad track, by which the narrow streets of the town can be
avoided, leads over these spurs from near the south end of the Kalund gorge,
and joins the main Persian route on the bank of Rawanduz river, 4 mile
above the town. This would be the best line for troops to avoid crowding at