'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎253] (362/496)

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recent occupation of Kerbela by the Turks. From the ferry to Bakuba *
is half a mile. This village boasts of some good gardens, and a few
wretched houses embosomed in a date grove, watered by a cut from the
Khorasan or Jelluleh canal. This canal, after passing Abu Khamis, is
lost in the deseit, about five hours south of this spot. Here we remained
during the heat of the day, which was excessive—thermometer 110 ° in
the shade in the afternoon. The observing the sun in the artificial
horizon for latitude and longitude was absolute torture. As evening
drew nigh, however, it became comparatively cool and pleasant. At 6 T 5
P. M. we resumed our journey, keeping more to the N. Eastward in a
general direction of 44°. Passed a cut from the Khorasan at 6 * 45 , and
another at 7T0. At this time the road led us more to the Eastward for
forty-five minutes, then diverged in a direction of 11 °, when we crossed
another cut from the Khorasan, leading to Karastel: here we remained
to water the cattle, and to allow the party to close. The night was
cool, with a brilliant moon. Started again in a direction of X. 22 ° E.
till 10*55, when we encamped for the night.
August 23rcl. — Left our ground at 3*50 a. m., continuing on the same
line as the previous evening. At 4*35 crossed the dry bed of a canal,
and at 5*7 halted for twenty minutes to observe the following bearings :
direction of the road, 42° ; Dakka village on the Mahrut canal, distant
three miles, 20 ^°; brow of Dalahu, the culminating point of the Zayros
range, G 0 |°, distant about ninety miles; centre of the Band-i-Koah
and wan, the name of a town that formerly stood on its banks,—or probably wan is
a contraction of the name of the monarch to whom Yakut ascribes its restoration.
If the canal were in existence at the time of the retreat of the 10,000 Greeks,
then it would represent the Physens of Xenophon; and the site of Opis, as Major
Rawlinson observes, would be marked by the ruins near Eski Baghdad. This
is, however, a very doubtful question. I am inclined to view the canal as a work of
a subsequent age, and think that the ruins of Opis must be sought for in some exten
sive vestiges near the junction of the Atheim (the more probable Physens) and the
o d bed ot the Tigris, now termed Sh’taitha. Some very high mounds noticed by
i)r. Ross, on his journey to A1 Hadhr, in the vicinity of Waneh, will, in all proba-
1 ^y, be found to correspond with the situation of the last city. This is, however,,
meiely conjectural; for although we have a clue to comparatively modern towns
^ ien compared with Opis, we are yet unable to arrive at their positive identity.
ven the Syro-Persian city erected by Khusru Amishirwan, at one day's march
ioni his capital at Etesephon, and which boasted of a stately circus, baths, and
magnificent abodes for the convenience and amusement of his Syrian captives, can
not at the present time be recognized, although it was built to perpetuate the joint
names of the monarch and his recent conquest of Antioch, the then capital of Sy-
iia.^ See Gibbon s “ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Chap. XLII.
* Bakuba, by double altitudes of the ©, is in latitude 32° 45' 10" N., and 13' 52"
•kast of Baghdad.