'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎72r] (148/862)

DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND
93
intersected by stream-beds, lined by oleanders and other shrubs.
Trees are scarce, water is mostly obtained from small springs, and
cultivation is mainly confined to the low plateaux between the streams.
The surface rises gradually northwards to a broken maze of low red
sandstone hills overlooked by the grey limestone wall of Hab-es-
Sultan Dagh on the north.
The Erbil plain, or Dasht-i-Haulair, is by far the most important
region between the two Zabs. In the north it is undulating and stony;
opposite Eski Kellek, where the direct road between Mosul and Erbil
crosses the Great Zab, the gravelly Demir Dagh rises in grass-covered
slopes to a barren rounded summit 200 feet above the plain. But
elsewhere the Erbil plain forms a gently rolling landscape, with a
fertile soil covering conglomerates and sandy shales. The drainage
pattern is nowhere well defined except towards the Avana Dagh,
where the Chai Shiwasor and Chai Kurdara flow west to the Great
Zab and together form a shallow undulating basin. The whole plain
is cultivated and presents a rolling green landscape in spring. Many
of the streams are perennial. The principal crops are wheat and
barley, and the district is probably the best wheat-producing region
of Iraq. Some rice is also grown near the town of Erbil. The popula
tion is denser than the average (p. 353), and there are many villages,
most of them inhabited by non-tribal Moslem Kurds, but others,
including Ankawa 2 miles north of Erbil, occupied by Christians.
All cultivation is dependent on rain or small distributaries from
streams. But the region has been well irrigated in the past, and the
karez system of irrigation (p. 442) has been a feature of this district.
The ancient Royal Road of the Achaemenid Persians passed from
Mosul to Erbil by way of Eski Kellek and thence to the Little Zab at
Altun Kopru. To-day there are bridges at Eski Kellek and Altun
Kopru, and this ancient highway is metalled and has a tarmac surface.
The huge mound of Erbil, probably of prehistoric origin, has never
been unoccupied since earliest times (frontispiece). It was the
ancient Arba-ilu (‘the four gods’) and later the classical Arbela,
which gave its name to the decisive battle of Alexander the Great
over Darius III in 331 b.c. (p. 227).
Northern Assyria (fig. 24)
This triangular region is bounded by the Tigris on the west, the
Great Zab on the east, and the Kurdish mountains on the north.
The greater part is made up of the plains of Mosul, the richest region
of Assyria at the most spectacular period of its empire, but there is