'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎90r] (184/862)

DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND
U3
Zab collects the drainage from comparatively open valleys on either
side. Below the small village of Suriya, about 13 miles from the Zab,
its course is through a continuous gorge. Four and a half miles above
the junction it is joined by the combined waters of the Marek and
Artush, both of which rise in Turkish territory.
Through such country movement is difficult. The Chia-i-Shirin
is crossed by one difficult mule-track behind Barzan; the Linki Dagh
is only passable on foot; the gorges are almost impenetrable. Thus
the seasonal migration of certain Kurdish tribes with their flocks
from higher to lower ground in autumn and in the opposite direction
in spring is forced along definite routes; the settled tribes usually
combine at these seasons for defence or profit under chieftains of
influence, who occupy points of vantage on the way.
(d) The Khahur Basin in Iraq (fig. 28)
The topography of the small part of the Khabur basin within Iraqi
boundaries is much less impressive than that of the Great Zab; but,
like the latter, it is the direct consequence of structure, simple in
broad outline, but seemingly complicated in detail. Both the Khabur
and its chief tributary, the Hazil Su, rise in Turkish territory, where
they collect the waters of many snow-fed affluents before entering
Iraq almost at right angles to the strike of the folded mountains.
The frontier ranges are cut through in gorges, but both rivers are
checked by the hard unbroken range of Jabal Bakhair, which, like its
extension farther east—the Chiyakira, Aqra, and Berat Daghs
deflects the waters along the strike. The Khabur joins the Hazil Su at
Dernakh below the village of Zakho, and as one river they enter the
Tigris at Maghara above Pesh Khabur.
Thus the region may be resolved into the following strips from
south to north, each running from east to west parallel to the strike:
(«) the Jabal Bakhair, westward continuation of the Chiyakira
Dagh;
(b) the Ghara Dagh, which plunges beneath the plain of Zakho;
(c) the depression of the Av-i-Sarka, open to the Sipna Nihail and
Amadia on the east, and widening the plain of Zakho on the
west;
(d) the western end of Ser Amadia, separated by the Khabur from
the single ridge of Chia-i-Dairi and Chia-i-Kaira;
(e) the frontier ranges, which, though complicated by erosion, still
show the same general east-west trend.
The chief difference between this region and the basin of the Great