Like the great city on which it was dependent, the
Necropolis occupies a prominent situation in the valley and
along the declivity of the hill westward of the town, and it
is remarkable for a number of square towers precisely of the
same construction as those near Palmyra. These monuments
of mortality usually consist of three stories, the lowest and
middle appear to have been tenements of the dead; whilst the
upper story served as a place of defence, and terminated either
with a flat, or a pyramidal roof surrounded by battlements.
In one of these tombs Captain Lynch recently discovered a
female mummy whose face was covered with a thin mask of
the finest gold, which is to be seen at the India House; and
in another tomb is an inscription, which was copied by Mr.
Ainsworth.1
In this part of Syria, at the distance, according to the
Arabs, of four hours southward of A1 Hammam, is the El
Ressafa of the Ommiade Khaliphs,2 which no doubt connected
Palmyra with the Zeugma. It is entirely deserted, but cannot
be called ruinous; the walls and many of the interior buildings
being in an excellent state of preservation. The town
displays a mixture of ancient with Saracenic, Muhammedan,
and Christian architecture ; the last being of a comparatively
late period, since there is a well-built modern Greek Church
within the walls.
In the western and northern portions of the district are
several fine valleys lying along the Kersin, the Sajur, and
their afiluents. The former river rises in the hills a little
way south-west of Rum Kal’ah, and flows southward to the
Kurdish village of Kara dash; from thence it proceeds south-
south-eastward by that of Rashil, and continues in the same
direction between undulating hills; it passes about eight miles
westward of the village and Tell of Balkis, on which latter
are the ruins of a temple, and at length washes the flourishing
and now celebrated Kasabah of Nizil, which contains about
1 / OJA W . KO
A 0 0 6 0M A
8 Jaubert’s Edrisi, p. 137, tome VI.—Recueil de Voyages, &c. Paris, 1840.
200 clay-built houses, the remains of a Greek Church, and a
ruinous castle overhanging the Kersin. A little below, the
latter is crossed by the bridge which leads to Bir, and soon
afterwards it receives an affluent coming eastward from the
Nizib hills.1 Except during the rainy season, the Kersin is
thus far fordable; but it is deeper during the remainder of its
course, which is eastward, till it falls into the Frat a few
miles below Port William.
The Sajur, the next river southward, and a more considerable
stream, runs almost parallel to the Kersin, but with a more
lengthened course. The principal branch has two sources,
which, after running a short distance along the southern slopes
of the Taurus, unite at the eastern side of A'in-tab; and a
little way south-eastward it is joined by an affluent coming
from the hills westward of the village of Arul. The trunk
now flows with a tortuous course along a deep bed between
two ranges of hills, for a distance of about 30 miles, to Tell
Khalid, a small village situated at the foot of one of the
monticules already noticed as being so common in this part of
the country. From an oval base of about 300 feet in length
by 200 feet in breadth, this remarkable and chiefly artificial
Tell rises in the shape of a truncated cone to a height of
nearly 174 feet; and on its summit are some trifling remains
of the castle which was an object of contest during the wars
of Salah-ed-din,2 and the subsequent invasion of Taimur.
Just below the village, the Sajur receives its western affluent,
the Keraskat, which flows into it from the village of Jiljamah,
about 25 miles to the north-west, where it has two sources.
Here the Sajur, now a considerable stream suited for boat
navigation, makes a bold sweep eastward; and, after running
about 12 miles as before, between two ranges of low hills of
chalk, it receives a feeder coming south-east from the village
of Tell Izan; after which it inclines more southward, and
finally forms five short branches and four islands as it enters
the Euphrates,3 near the tent village of Sarasat. Not far
1 The position occupied by the Sultan’s army when defeated by Ibrdhlm
Pashd, 24th June, 1839.
8 Hist, des Huns, tome II., p. 232. 8 See above, p. 47.
2 E 2