'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎80r] (164/862)

DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND IOI
appear beneath the nappe front, though broken by the Rania plain,
reappear to the north-west and together build the watershed of the
Great Zab. North-east of the Kurkur Dagh and Kuh-i-Resh the
Pizhder plain is levelled by debris from the frontier mountains which
buries the folds beyond the elbow of the Little Zab, in much the same
way as the Halabja plain is levelled by the debris of Avroman Dagh.
On the west bank of the Little Zab the Hab-es-Sultan Dagh forms a
grey double-ridged limestone wall, 3,500 to 4,000 feet above sea-level,
but it is crossed by three mule-tracks, so that it is less of a barrier than
it appears at first sight; it is also easier than either its extension south
east across the Zab or the Sefin Dagh which continues it to the north
west.
The Rania plain or Dasht-i-Bitwain, with an area of about 150
square miles, is watered by a number of streams, some of which are
supplemented by warm springs. Drainage in the lower valleys and in
the plain is bad; the ground in winter and spring is sodden and often
marshy, and though the soil appears to be rich and heavy it is little
cultivated except for some tobacco, much of it being covered by grass,
sometimes shoulder high. Shepherds’ tracks lead up most of the
tributaries; there is an easy though little-used pony-route up the
Gumangai tributary which reaches Shaqlawa in the Rubat Mawaran
valley (p. 104); the Balisan valley, between the Harir and Makok
(Bejan) Dagh, has cols leading both to the Barazan and Alana valleys
(p. 105); the most easterly stream, the Serkapkan, flows south in a
very narrow valley from the Garu Manjal col and cuts off the end of
the Makok ridge. East of this the narrow, black, rocky ridge of Kuh-i-
Resh isolates the drainage of the Rania plain from that of the Pizhder
plain. The two are connected by an easy pony-road through the
Darband-i-Ramakhan.
The Pizhder plain forms a wide semicircular amphitheatre,
bounded by the Zernakui massif on the north and by the Kandil
Dagh along the Persian boundary on the north and east. This part
of the Kandil Dagh rises to summits between 9,000 and 11,000 feet
and in the north is faced with great black precipices of snow-capped
rock. The many streams which water the frontier range have wild,
thickly wooded upper valleys, often with precipitous rocky walls, but
as they enter the plain their beds are cut between steep earthen or
conglomerate banks. Qala Dizeh, the chief village of the plain, is the
winter headquarters of a section of the Mangur Kurds, who cross by
little-known tracks to Sardasht and to the Vasneh grazing-grounds
beyond the Persian border in summer. The lower slopes of the