"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [ظ‎‎٣‎٥‎٢] (٨٦٢/٧٠٧)

PORTS AND INLAND TOWNS
548
to Suq ash Shuyukh. Unmetalled road [2] south-east by Jaliba to Shuaiba
and Basra. Desert tracks [19] south to Busaiya and south-west to Salman.
Unmetalled road [2] north-west to Samawa.
Water: Native craft and launches can use the Euphrates upstream to
Hit and downstream by the Hammar lake to Basra; passage is restricted or
impossible at times of low water.
Air: Landing-ground near the railway station.
Ramadi. 33 0 26' N., 43 0 18' E.; alt. c. 190. Pop. 7,000. Dulaim Liwa
cap.
Ramadi is a small town on the right bank of the Euphrates 8 miles north
of Habbaniya lake, between the Habbaniya escape channel and the Aziziya
canal. A cultivated district, including many palm-groves, extends east of
the town. The inhabitants are mostly Sunnis and include many settled
Dulaim tribesmen and a Jewish colony.
There were settlements in the neighbourhood in ancient and Abbasid
times, but the modern town was founded by Midhat Pasha (1869) to en
courage the settlement of the Dulaim tribe. It became a garrison town in
1878 and later the centre of a qadha, and after 1918 of a liwa, though it is
by no means the principal of the upper Euphrates towns. The develop
ment of the desert traffic to Syria and Palestine by Rutba has increased its
importance, and Dulaim shaikhs have their houses in it. There is a sarai
and Customs house, a bazaar of 150 shops, a hospital (50 beds), and a
desert police post. The river is crossed by a flying ferry ij miles north of
the town. Water is from the Euphrates, and there is electricity from a
municipal plant.
Communications
Water : I he Euphrates is with difficulty navigable by launches upstream
to Hit and downstream to Falluja.
Road: Track across the Jazira north by a line of wells to Samarra on the
Tigris. Tarmac road [4] east to Falluja and Baghdad, and west to join the
Baghdad—Rutba road 11 miles outside Ramadi. Road mostly unsurfaced
[4] north-west to Hit and Abu Kemal (Syria).
Air: Landing-ground one-quarter of a mile south of the town.
Ruwandiz. 36° 37' N., 44 0 33' E.; alt. c. 3,000 feet. Pop. 7,000. Qadha
cap., Erbil Liwa.
The town is remarkably situated on a narrow tongue of rock that slopes
down from the Bejan Dagh (Shakh-i-Kurrek) between the gorges of the
Rubar-i-Ruwandiz and the Rubar-i-Handren, narrows to 100 yards, and
ends in a small plateau above the gorges. It is 42 miles north-east of
Erbil and 80 east-north-east of Mosul. The population consists chiefly